Two New Jersey travelers say they helped restrain a passenger who turned violent on American Airlines Flight 618 to Newark, after the man made slurs and attacked people near him.
Juan Mejia and his boss, Richard O’Lenick, were on the final leg of a trip from Reno, Nevada. They said the trouble started when the passenger aimed foul language at flight attendants.
“He started using the N-word and being very hostile and spewing venom towards them,” Mejia said.
The men were seated in first class. The disturbance was two rows behind them.
Alarming Words From the Passenger
O’Lenick said the passenger made frightening comments during the flight. The man told him the plane would not land safely.
“So, his comment to me was, ‘We’re all going to die. The plane is going to crash.’ I’m like, no, I said, we’re going to be fine. And I tell you what, when we got to the front, when we get on the ground, we’re going to be a whole bunch of new friends in blue,” O’Lenick said.
Mejia and O’Lenick said their concern grew quickly. They said the passenger allegedly began choking the person seated next to him. Mejia said he saw fear in that person’s eyes.
“When I made eye contact with him, you could see the fear in his eyes and, like, without saying, ‘Help me, can you help me?’ And I got up and did what I had to do,” Mejia said.
A female passenger attempted to intervene before the men stepped in.
Restraining the Passenger
Mejia is a retired Weehawken police officer. He said his training took over in the moment.
“I didn’t think about it. Just got up, did what I had to do and use my prior training,” Mejia said.
The men moved in to stop the passenger from hurting anyone else. O’Lenick described the first seconds of the struggle.
“When we first initially engaged, we worked on physically restraining him and to try to prevent him from physically assaulting, anybody else, including ourselves, because he was resisting us,” O’Lenick said.
The passenger kept fighting. Mejia said the man bit him during the struggle.
“He ended up biting my hand and my forearm and kept trying to get up. Then Rich came over assisting me, put his weight on his body and torso, holding him down. And then the crew brought zip ties,” Mejia said.
Lundeen was also restrained to his seat with duct tape. Mejia and O’Lenick said both of them were covered in blood after the fight ended.
The passenger was identified as 67-year-old Arthur Lundeen of Arizona.
Fear Arrived After the Fight
O’Lenick said the terror did not hit him right away. It arrived after the rush faded.
“The terror of being feeling terrified came afterwards. Once the adrenaline level came down a little bit. And the reason that I would say terrified, I would say it came into play because we didn’t know what we were up against at that time,” O’Lenick said.
The date mattered to him. The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was approaching, and he said that shaped how he thought about the danger on the plane.
Mejia and O’Lenick said they acted to protect the other passengers and the crew.
The Men’s Account
Both travelers said the passenger’s words were offensive from the start. The slurs came before any physical contact.
Mejia described the man as hostile and full of anger toward the flight attendants. The situation grew worse from words to violence in a short window.
The person being choked was not named in the report. Mejia said he saw the fear in that person’s eyes and understood the plea.
He got up from his seat and moved toward the danger. The two men worked together to hold the passenger down.
Crew members brought restraints, and the man was eventually secured to his seat. Mejia and O’Lenick said they were left covered in blood.
A Final Word From the Travelers
The two men said they felt a duty to act.
Mejia said his training told him what to do. O’Lenick said the uncertainty was the worst part. No one on board knew what the man intended to do.
“We didn’t know what we were up against at that time,” he said.
The slurs made the situation worse, the men said. Their account stands as the record of what happened on that flight.
“When I made eye contact with him, you could see the fear in his eyes and, like, without saying, ‘Help me, can you help me?’ And I got up and did what I had to do,” Mejia said.
Source: abc7ny.com
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