City councillor plays mediator in frantic mid-flight drama
Terrified Air Canada passengers look on as Michael Thompson helps subdue man who allegedly threatened to ‘take the plane down’
A Toronto city councillor helped subdue a fellow passenger on an Air Canada airplane Monday after the man allegedly tried to open a cabin door mid-flight.
Michael Thompson was flying home with his mother from a Jamaican vacation when a man in business class became upset and was moved to a seat in the back of the plane, near Thompson.
Thompson said the tall, lanky and agi- tated Canadian removed his belt, put it on the seat beside him and also removed his shoes. Thompson got a flight attendant’s okay to talk to him.
“It was a very difficult situation but we had to be calm and try to reason with the individual,” he said.
It seemed to work, but the man soon became upset, ordering Thompson to leave the seat beside him and then ordering him not to stand in the aisle. When the councillor refused to sit down, the man jumped up, grabbed a coffee pot from the galley and threatened to throw it at him, Thompson said.
The man also threatened to open the plane door, saying “I’m going to take the plane down” and “It will take one guy to take the plane down,’’ Thompson said. The man paused when Thompson moved toward him, he said. A flight attendant got in between them and got the coffee pot away from the man.
Passengers, including many families returning from vacation, were upset, Thompson said.
“People were crying,” and demanding the plane land so they could get off, he said.
Thompson asked another flight crew member if the man should be restrained. She consulted the pilot who agreed, he said, and provided several male passengers with thick plastic restraints.
The man struggled and managed to pull a lever on the door before being subdued, said Thompson, who bound the man’s feet. He had high praise for the professionalism of the Air Canada crew.
The pilot diverted the plane to Orlando, where authorities removed the man from the plane. Thompson and several other passengers were interviewed by the FBI.
U.S. authorities identified the man taken into custody as Brandon Michael Courneyea.
A criminal complaint against him says he was arrested under a charge of assault or intimidation of a flight crew member and interfering with their job duties, an allegation that has not yet been proven in court.
Courneyea’s wife says his arrest has come as a complete shock, saying his alleged behaviour is not in keeping with the man she knows.
“That is not my husband at all,” she told the Canadian Press in a telephone interview. “There’s a lot more to what brought that on, because my husband is the kindest, most loving man you’ll ever meet. And anybody that knows him will tell you the same thing.”
Amanda Courneyea said her 33year-old husband headed off to Jamaica last week from his home in Amherstview, Ont., to fulfil a longheld desire to take a vacation there.
She said she had urged him to “cross it off his bucket list,” adding he travelled alone because the couple has five children, many of whom have special needs, and cannot be left in the care of a babysitter.
But Brandon Courneyea’s vacation plans went awry almost immediately, according to his wife, who said he told her that locals were threatening his life. She arranged for him to move up his flight plans from Friday to Monday, booking him on an Air Canada flight to Toronto that left Montego Bay in the late afternoon.
According to the criminal complaint filed against Courneyea, disruptions began almost as soon as the flight was in the air.
Air Canada spokesperson Isabelle Arthur said Courneyea’s efforts to open a door mid-flight would not have succeeded, saying it’s “impossible to do during flight.”
She said crew followed standard procedures for dealing with unruly passengers, adding the airline would not offer further comment as the incident is now a police matter.
Many commercial aircraft use what are known as plug doors that are sealed by the pressure inside the plane and must be pulled inward be- fore they can be opened.
Boeing has been quoted as saying the air pressure inside a plane at cruising altitude is much greater than the pressure outside, “and that pressure differential makes it impossible to open the door, even if somebody wanted to do such a thing.”
Amanda Courneyea said she has not been allowed to speak to her husband since his arrest, adding his absence is taking a toll.
“My kids are heart-broken and crying, and I’m crying, and we just want him home where he belongs,” she said.
Amy Filjones, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida, said Brandon Courneyea must come before a judge to be indicted on a criminal charge, adding that has not yet taken place. She would not comment on whether he would be released.
Global Affairs Canada did not immediately respond to request for comment.