Angry smoker attacks pilot

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 9

Angry smoker attacks pilot

NZPA-AAP Atlantic City A passenger, after being told not to smoke, attacked the pilot of a twin-engined plane and caused it to dive 2000 ft before he was knocked out by another passenger, said an airline spokesman. During the fight for the controls, the plane nosedived twice, and came close to crashing in the second. A spokesman for Southern Jersey Airways said its plane would have crashed if another passenger, Robert Abrams, had not subdued the man. Mr Abrams said

he acted, “because I thought I was going to die. After eight or nine punches I knocked him out, he said.

Authorities said John Johnson started hitting the pilot and grabbing the plane’s controls when told to stop smoking. He will be arraigned on charges of interfering with a flight, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail. The plane was on a flight from Atlantic City to Islip, New York. The “New York Times" reported that the attack

started after the pilot told the passenger to put out a cigarette soon after takeoff, officials said.

“He entered the cockpit, lunged at the captain, grabbed the steering control stick and depressed it, causing the aircraft to nose-dive radically,” said a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman, Mr Michael McDonnell.

The plane dropped from 3500 feet to 1500 feet before the co-pilot and several passengers subdued the man. Moments later, the passenger broke free, assaulted

the pilot again and again depressed the control stick, causing the plane “to bank to the left in an almost vertical nose dive,” Mr McDonnell said. The man who was seized was identified as John Gary Johnson, aged 33, of Newark. He was under observation yesterday at a branch of the Atlantic City Medical Centre in Pomona, New Jersey.

The pilot, Joseph Gould, and two unidentified passengers were treated at the hospital for minor injuries and released.