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American Morning

Interview of Man on Flight With Panicked Passenger

Aired October 09, 2001 - 09:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Quite a fright for passengers on board an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago yesterday. Authorities in California say a man who tried to enter the cockpit of an American Airlines jetliner will be charged in federal court today. Flight 1238, flying from Los Angeles, landed safely at Chicago's O'Hare Airport yesterday. It was escorted in by two F-16s. People heard the sound barrier broken everywhere across the country. The FBI says the jets were requested by the pilot after a mentally impaired passenger tried to get into the cockpit; other passengers wrestled him to the ground and held him down until the plane landed.

Bill Neff was a passenger on the flight. He's on the phone from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Welcome, Bill.

BILL NEFF: Good morning.

ZAHN: Bill, explain to us where you were sitting and what you saw.

NEFF: I was in the first-class section, two aisles back; I was in window seat 3A, and my wife was in 3B. We switched with I believe it was a Japanese fellow who sat in the front.

Basically, I was laying down, and had my eyes closed, and I heard this rumble coming up like a stampede. They were saying he's going for the cockpit. As soon as I awoke, I saw about four men on the opposite aisle rushing by. There might have been someone on our aisle, but I wasn't sure -- and we're talking seconds here.

I immediately jumped out and went up front the same with the others. When I jumped up, I saw him hit the cockpit door; the door flew open, and right then and there, silently in my mind, I said, Lord God, help us.

I was right behind a real big fellow, and they somehow got him. There must have been at least I would say 10 to maybe 15 people, men who rushed up to assist. For a fraction of a second, what immediately went through my mind was this is a terrorist attack. And once the man was screaming and saying, They are going to do the Trade Center and was just talking -- but it was a scary moment for a few seconds as the event went down. ZAHN: Bill, we are actually are looking at a picture there -- somehow we are able to get one, which is quite remarkable, given how scary all this was. Explain to us, once you had all these guys that sort of stormed the front of the plane to restrain this guy, what happened. We actually see what looks like a man in a navy blue shirt behind the alleged...

NEFF: What you are seeing here is the authorities taking the man off the plane. Once we, basically, were about 25 miles out, and we went to a secured area, they landed the plane, and these were the officers that were coming on board and taking him away. As you can see, they have handcuffs behind him. While the men that restrained him were sitting on him, I offered my belt, and they went and got seat belts -- the demonstration seat belts -- and they tied his hands and feet, and they literally carried the man back to the back section, away from the cabin door.

And my question is I didn't see any sky marshals, I didn't see any restraint; we didn't have any handcuffs on board. They had sedatives, but they're not allowed to administer sedatives. And I don't understand that.

ZAHN: Bill, you describe, once again, when you heard, "They are going to go for the Sears Tower," was that the mentally impaired man that said this, or was this another passenger?

NEFF: Yes, the impaired man says the pilots are going to go for the Sears Tower. He was distraught and stressed, but someone screamed out, and that naturally put fright in all our minds; basically, most of us were calm -- scared but calm.

ZAHN: Bill, from what I understand, this young man was actually accompanied by his father on the flight. Did his father attempt to come forward at any point in this?

NEFF: I did not see him. From my memory, I believe they brought the father up later. I didn't see it. We are talking seconds here, the event. You heard the rumble and the stampede coming down. They were running full gallop, and they hit the door, and the door just flew open. We are talking that whole period of time might have been maybe three to five seconds, but it seemed like an eternity, I guess is what I am saying.

ZAHN: At what point do you think you all collectively realized that this man was mentally impaired and he was not, in fact, a hijacker? When did you get that?

NEFF: I would say once they said we've got him, he's held down. I would say it might have been maybe about 10 to 15 seconds of scare, however you want to word it.

ZAHN: I understand you are a pilot, and you're thinking in the back of your mind if I've got to help out the pilot here, I can land this thing.

NEFF: I'm an instrument pilot. I was already premeditated that if something like that would have ever occurred, I knew that it is my duty to charge ahead and do what I can do, and if I had to, yes, I would jump in the pilot's seat, and be, I'm sure, talked down -- I don't know how to fly a jet; I know how to fly small airplanes, but I'm an instrument pilot.

And I think the Americans are all going to jump in and help wherever they can.

ZAHN: Bill, I know you described fellow passengers taking this young man to the back of the plane, and you were concerned that they couldn't administer sedatives. How long was it before this young man calmed down?

NEFF: We heard him screaming all the time. They asked are there nurses or doctors? The flight attendants were asking around for one. It might have took 15 -- until they took the man back I would say the man was up front maybe five minutes. Until they were sitting down and getting seat belts, it might have been a little bit longer. Until they put him back there, it might have been 15 minutes or so, until they could actually get him calm. But he was definitely yelling for a long period of time, and I'm sure worked up a lot of the passengers; we were all basically praying to almighty God.

ZAHN: I'm sure you were -- who wouldn't be?

You also talk about how you don't believe there was a federal marshal on board. Was there any anger directed at the feds because there wasn't a federal marshal on board, or do we know that for a fact? A federal marshal probably would have attempted to stop this thing.

NEFF: My question here is if there was a federal marshal on board -- they're basically police officers -- you would think they would have had some kind of a restraint system, like a handcuffs, on board. We had to search and look for seat belts. The irony of it is we just got back from Sydney. We were gone for 18 days, and there was a door on the previous flight from O'Hare to LAX. The first attendant slammed the door, and the cockpit doors went all the way in. They got a maintenance guy in. They said they had to get a part, and he came back and supposedly fixed the door.

Myself being a certified locksmith, five seconds doesn't look like the fellow fixed the door. I didn't see him actually put parts to the door. It would be interesting to see if that was the exact same aircraft where they had an incident 18 days prior.

ZAHN: I'll tell you one thing, most of America that is trying to regain the faith to get back in the air hears this, and it is, obviously, very frightening.

A final question for you: Were you surprised at all by the number of men who actually stormed this guy? We heard about the great heroism displayed in that flight that ended up crashing in Pennsylvania. I guess you just want to believe that people on your flight would behave this way, but were you surprised? NEFF: No, I was not surprised; in fact, I expected it. If every man on board, and if space would allow it, I would say about 50 percent of the men would get up there at the front. To be honest with you. I did not expect any, and I think every man in his own mind is premeditated in his thoughts that if something goes down, he knows what to do. And they did, and I'm proud of them.

ZAHN: Bill Neff, we really appreciate your sharing your story with us today.

Did it give you confidence when you knew the F-16s were on either side of you?

NEFF: I knew that they did what the government wants them to do. I know that if they go into the Sears Tower, they would shoot our airplane down. Did I feel confident? It's nice to know that the government's out there. If an incident does occur, they're definitely going to try to prevent a plane from doing what happened up in New York. So yes, that was definitely comforting that way.

ZAHN: Bill Neff, thank you again for coming on this morning and telling us what happened on board that flight.

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