Turkish man is duct-taped to seat on Hawaii-bound plane

HONOLULU — Authorities say a man created so many problems on American Airlines Flight 31 from Los Angeles to Honolulu that he had to be immobilized with duct tape in a seat until the plane landed in Honolulu.

He was taken into custody after the plane, escorted by two fighter jets, landed.

The man — identified as Anil Uskanli, 25, of Turkey — now faces a possible federal charge of interference with a flight crew, Paul Delacourt, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Honolulu office, told reporters in Hawaii.

As authorities on Saturday investigated what happened, it was not clear whether Uskanli intended to harm anyone.

Halfway through the six-hour flight Friday, passengers saw Uskanli holding his laptop with something over his head that they thought was a towel or a blanket.

“He was very quiet, moving very sluggish. He was trying to approach the cabin, like where the captain is,” passenger Grant Arakelian said.

At that point, a flight attendant ran down the aisle with her serving cart and blocked the entrance to first class, said passenger Lee Lorenzen.

“She jammed the cart in that the doorway and she just said, ‘You’re not coming in here,’ ” Lorenzen said.

The man pushed the cart, trying to get through, but passengers came up behind him and grabbed him. He spent the rest of the flight restrained in a seat with duct tape.

Passengers among the 181 flying on Flight 31, staffed with six crew members, took notice of Uskanli before the jet took off from Los Angeles.

Before he boarded, Uskanli also was arrested at Los Angeles International airport for opening a door that led onto an airfield ramp, according to Los Angeles Airport police.

“He immediately walked up to somebody and said, ‘Where can I get something to eat?’ ” Los Angeles airport spokesman Rob Pedregon said. “He walked right up to somebody. He wasn’t trying to go somewhere or do something illicit.”

Though airport police smelled alcohol on Uskanli’s breath, he was not intoxicated enough to be held for public drunkenness, so they cited and released him.