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What: TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A320-200 en route from Montevideo to Sao Paulo
Where: Porto Alegre
When: Feb 11th 2012
Who: 1 unruly passenger
Why: A Tam airbus was en route when a passenger intruded into the cockpit. The pilot yelled for help, and the plane veered sharply to the right. The cockpit door was open. Some reports of the incident mention that the passenger had a TAM badge. (Some Uraguan accounts say the individual was flying in the cockpit on a jumpseat.)
We don’t have a firsthand account, but secondary sources say a couple of stewardesses dragged the intruder out of the cockpit by his feet, then “The people quickly jumped on top of him, the guy fought back furiously, biting and hurting a half dozen people…in a kind of collective action they were able to immobilize him, tying him to a seat.”
Passengers talked about the incident feeling like a September 911 film.
The pilot diverted to Porto Alegre and made a safe landing. A number of passengers and possibly the two flight attendants were injured in the altercation. The passenger was taken into police custody, and he was incarcerated in the psychiatric ward of a local hospital for having suffered a “psychotic episode.”
The flight reached Sao Paulo nearly three hours late.