Midflight alarm on JFK jet
NY suspect in bid to force open door
A buff barber from Hell’s Kitchen went berserk while high on drugs during a flight from JFK to Seattle and had to be restrained when he tried to open an emergency exit, officials said.
Jordan Fragiacomo, 28, tried to open a rear exit door on an Alaska Airlines flight Monday after babbling incoherently and attempting to kiss two flight attendants, according to a police report.
“If you continue to restrain me, there’s going to be problems,” Fragiacomo said at one point.
During the flight, Fragiacomo began grabbing passengers’ headphones and drinks, the report said.
A witness said that it was “obvious he was under the influence of something” and that he was speaking nonsensically.
Fragiacomo then tried to smooch a flight attendant before deciding he wanted to “get off the flight” and bolted toward the back door.
Several flight attendants and two off-duty pilots were able to finally restrain him, but not before he grabbed a second attendant and once again tried to plant a kiss on her.
The plane went into lockdown mode to secure the cockpit while they kept Fragiacomo restrained.
The jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 9:45 a.m. Monday local time.
When asked for identification, Fragiacomo referred authorities to a Web site that shows him shirtless and offers his clients a hot shave “in the privacy of your own home.”
He also admitted to authorities that he had ingested the daterape drug GHB, in addition to unknown amounts of cocaine and Xanax, three hours before the flight.
A relative, when reached at home, told the Post that Fragia- como’s midflight behavior was “completely out of character.”
After landing in Minneapolis, he was taken to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina.
KIRO-TV Seattle reporter Linzi Sheldon posted a cellphone video to her Twitter account showing the bespectacled suspect with his hands handcuffed behind his back.
Two uniformed officers are seen leading the suspect — who was sporting shorts and a blond Mohawk — off the jet.
The video caption reads, “Omfg they made an emergency landing to arrest this guy.”
Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Halley Knigge told The Associated Press that the suspect “attempted to access one of the doors in the rear of the aircraft” and was “removed by law enforcement” upon landing.
Knigge noted that it’s impossible to open a jet door while the craft is pressurized and in flight.
The Boeing 737-900ER had taken off from JFK at 7:40 a.m. New York time. The jet eventually continued on to Seattle.