PLANE FORCED TO LAND
MAN TERRORISES PASSENGERS
(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK. May 28. The pilot of an airliner with 29 persons aboard made an emergency landing at Fresno. California, to-day. after a passenger had drawn a revolver. Police, who had been summoned by radio, arrested John O'Reilly, a 26-year-old war veteran, on a charge jf assault.
Crew members said that O'Reilly, who was travelling with his wife and child, had claimed that the passengers were being gassed, and that the coffee served by the stewardess was poisoned.
Tne police said that O’Reilly’s wife told them he was haunted by the fear that the owners of an imaginary dope ring wanted to kill him. O'Reilly terrorised the other passengers in the airliner for 35 minutes. He broke a window with a fire-extinguisher, threw the extinguisher out. and then smashed another window with a firstaid kit. O Reilly retreated to the rear of the aeroplan* screamed, and brandished a revolver.
When the aircraft landed. O’Reilly went down the ramp with the gun drawn, but dropped it when ordered to do so by the police.
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Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26125, 30 May 1950, Page 5
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183PLANE FORCED TO LAND Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26125, 30 May 1950, Page 5
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