An airline passenger who was subdued with an ax after he kicked in the bottom of a cockpit door and tried to wriggle through said later that he had "wanted to destroy everything," according to the FBI.
Pablo Moreira Mosca, a 29-year-old bank employee from Uruguay, was arrested after the incident Thursday on a United Airlines flight bound from Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 157 people aboard.
Argentine authorities said they were investigating whether he was under the influence of drugs or mentally unhinged. US officials said he did not appear to be drunk and was not armed, and that it did not appear to be a terrorist act.
"His brother said he often becomes upset when there is turbulence, and passengers told us he had been drinking a lot on the plane. But when I asked him about it, he told me he had one whiskey prior to getting on the plane," said Argentine Air Force spokesman Jorge Reta.
Moreira was sent back to the United States and appeared in federal court Friday with a bruise under his right eye. He was held without bail on a charge of interfering with a flight crew, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
After the hearing, defense attorney Allan Sullivan said Moreira was not a terrorist. But the attorney gave no explanation for his actions.
Asked about Moreira's mental state, US Attorney Guy Lewis said, "I'm comfortable with his medical condition."
United reinforced its cockpit doors with metal bars after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. United chairman and chief executive Jack Creighton said the reinforced door helped keep Moreira from entering the cockpit.
Passengers said that a few hours into the trip, Moreira began shouting that he wanted to talk to the pilot and rushed to the front of the plane.
According to the FBI, he rammed the cockpit door several times with his shoulder, then kicked part of it in and crawled inside up to his torso. Crew members hit him with the blunt end of an ax. A doctor sedated him.
Shortly before landing in Buenos Aires, Moreira allegedly said, "I wanted to destroy everything."
In December, Richard C. Reid, an alleged al-Qaida-trained terrorist, was arrested on suspicion of trying blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his sneakers.
(China Daily February 9, 2002)
