Unruly, ‘disheveled’ man subdued on jet bound for Honolulu

HONOLULU — A man on a Hawaii-bound flight who was described as unruly and disheveled was subdued by passengers and a flflight attendant who used an airplane drink cart to block him from getting to the front of the jet.

He was then immobilized with duct tape in a seat until the plane landed in Honolulu on Friday, escorted on the last leg of its journey by two fifighter jets.

The man on the plane outbound from Los Angeles was identified by law enforcement offifficials as Anil Uskanil, 25, of Turkey. He was taken into custody after the plane landed.

Usk a n i l a l s o h a d b e e n arrested before boarding the flflight at Los Angeles International Airport for opening a door that led onto an airfifield ramp, according to Los Angeles Airport Police, who identifified Uskanil.

He had been drinking, but police said he did not meet the criteria for being drunk in public, so he was given a date to appear in court on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing and allowed to board.

Passenger s among the 181 flflying on American Airlines Flight 31 took notice of Uskanil before the jet took offffffffffff.

Among the fifirst to board were fifirst-class passengers Mark and Donna Basden, who found a laptop computer in a seat pocket in front of them.

The couple, from Albuquerque, N.M., assumed someone on a previous flflight had left it there but a flflight attendant said it probably belonged to a man who was in the bathroom.

The man, whom Donna B a s d e n d e s c r i b e d a s a “disheveled-looking fellow,” emerged and Mark Basden gave him the laptop. The man scowled, took the laptop and then tried to sit in another fifirst class seat, Mark Basden said.

He “cle arly looked out of place” and was sent to the economy section of the plane after a flflight attendant asked to see his boarding pass, Donna Basden said.

Halfway through the sixhour flflight, the couple saw the same man, again holding his laptop, with somet hi ng over hi s he ad t hat 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,” said another passenger, Grant Arakelian.

At that point, a flflight attendant ran down the aisle with her serving cart and blocked the entrance to fifirst class, said passenger Lee Lorenzen, of Orange County, Calif.

Uskanil tried to get through but passnegers grabbed him from behind. He spent the rest of the flflight restrained in a seat with duct tape.

“This unfortunate incident highlights the tremendous professionalism of American’s team members,” the airline said in a statement.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was briefed on the midair disturbance, according to a statement from the department.

As Uskanil was subdued, the cockpit called for help. Federal agents were sent to wait for the plane and two F-22 Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard scrambled to meet it.

“We g o t t h a t mi l i t a r y escort coming into Honolulu,” Donna Basden said with a laugh, “So welcome to Hawaii.”