Thread by @borski

This is long, but literally one of the craziest stories I have ever been able to tell. This was not on my bingo card of things that would ever happen to me in my lifetime.

On Monday, 9/9, I was on @AmericanAir flight 4896, flying SJC to PHX. 1/

As you may be able to tell (), we didn’t make it to Phoenix. Our plane was diverted to LAX. I was seated in 4B, my wife in 4A, and there was a sizable, strong, older man in 5D. This was a CRJ700, so narrow body 2+2. 2/dub.sh/gG7XhYk

Early on in the flight, @Annie_Xanie and I notice that he’s complaining about someone vaping. Obviously nobody is, but the flight attendant does the right thing and walks around the couple rows behind and in front and confirms nobody is vaping. 3/

FA asks people if they have been or if they’ve smelled anything, and then confirms for the man (let’s call him John) that nobody is. He seems relatively placated, and the flight goes on. Ten minutes later, I hear a major commotion behind me, and I hear a man scream ‘STOP HIM!’ 4/

The next few moments all happened extremely fast, within a few seconds. What had happened was, unbeknownst to me, John had charged across row 5 and into an Indian woman and her <1yr old baby, clearly intending to cause them harm. 5/

Her husband had gotten in between them and pushed him back, and he was the one who yelled “STOP HIM.”

John then proceeded to charge the cockpit door, trying to open it. The flight attendant tried to stop him, and she got slammed around a good bit. 6/

Likely a fractured elbow, and hit her head hard enough on the metal lock of the cabin door after being thrown into it that I’d be very worried about a concussion for the next few days. This entire time, I’m trying to get up out of my seat, and literally bucking like a bull. 7/

As usual, the benefit of ADHD: in the urgent emergent moment, my heart rate drops to 50 and I am the calmest person on the planet. The entire time, for the duration. But had no idea I was still buckled into the seatbelt, and it took me a few seconds to realize that. 8/

Once I did, I stopped bucking and got up. There were 3 other guys that also got up and ran to the front of the plane.

We all grabbed him, moved him back, got him seated (with force), and got him restrained after a bit of a scuffle. 9/

He scraped his elbow and hit his head on the window, but all very minor. One of the other 3 guys had trained in some grappling also, immediately got in the seat behind John and grabbed a seatbelt grip from behind him to keep him restrained while I put on his seatbelt. 10/

The flight attendant had a panic attack, and worked through it; I get it, she had just been assaulted, and while they train for these things, they’re not exactly doing military drills either. 11/

Despite her panic attack, she was very good at keeping the back of the plane calm, but otherwise was not very useful. She kept everyone in their seats, etc, and she was injured, so I get it.

But: “Where’s the Medkit?” “I don’t know.” 12/

“Where are the plasticuffs?” “Hang on let me look”, then brings them back to say “I can’t figure out how to use these,” etc.

Of course she knew where everything was and how to use it; but mid-panic attack and in shock, she couldn’t access those parts of her brain at all. 13/

So she handed me the cuffs, I cuffed him, etc.

A bit of background: just over a year ago, one of my closest friends, @ebeip90, passed away. He also had schizophrenia, and his first psychotic break actually happened while he was visiting CA. 14/

I happened to be the one that went with him to the ER, to his first psych appointment, etc. So I had a bit of unique context for being able to recognize paranoid delusion, and a psychotic break. I’m certain I was not the only one; I know Annie immediately knew too. 15/

But he was clearly having a paranoid delusional break from reality; he was not trying to hijack the plane. He kept talking about how the plane was full of Iranian hijackers and how he was a hostage, he was on the wrong plane, we were going to attack Andrews AFB, and so on. 16/

Once we got him restrained, I knew that if I kept him talking then he would be speaking to voices outside his head - me. He asked me over a dozen times what country I was from, what my cause was (his was Jesus Christ), and so on. 17/

But as long as he was talking to me, he wasn’t talking to the voices in his head. This became extremely clear since every time he *stopped* talking, after a few seconds he would begin struggling to stand up, and if I started him talking again he would settle down for a while. 18/

Part of it was also distraction, but I learned this with @ebeip90 - he genuinely believed he was trying to save the plane. He was clearly a danger to everyone on it, but that *was not his intent*, and that really does make a difference, because it meant I could talk to him. 19/

He wasn’t a bad person; he was a person having a very very very bad day. I asked him if he was on any medication at all, and he said no (which I believed), so it became even more clear to me that he not only was having paranoid delusions but had no idea he was having them. 20/

It is thanks to @ebeip90 that I knew how to react and how to de-escalate.

We land at LAX; they have the entire plane behind us deplane; the British guy still had a solid seatbelt grip, and I was seated next to John holding the end of the Plasticuffs, holding his arms down. 21/

LAPD came in to the front galley. The flight attendant is giving them the wrong info. She had been assaulted and was still mid-panic attack, so I get it, but her explanation focused exclusively on the physical altercation, trying to get into the cockpit, etc. 22/

That’s when I jumped up again to go talk to the cops; they were preparing to come on with force, subdue a hijacker, etc., and this guy was about to get extremely fucked. I told them he had a psych break and this was a 5150 and they needed a psychiatrist. 23/

(I know what a 5150 is because of Zach, and because I know random things like police codes and airport codes for no reason). I explained the situation in more detail. The cops came on board with a psychiatrist and everything was OK from there; they walked him off calmly. 24/

I’m afraid of coming off as arrogant or something, and it’s taken me 3 days to write this up, but I’m honestly pretty proud of myself. I think I was fairly unique suited to be able to help. 25/

The other guys there were extremely helpful at subduing him and restraining him (it was 100% a team effort, this was a big dude and it took all of us to overcome brute ‘I need to save the plane’ strength), but it was going to be entirely through force. 26/

“You’re going to sit down, shut up, and stay seated” shouted at the top of their lungs and that sort of thing. I completely get it, but it was not going to cause him to calm down; in his state, he needed to be told things were fine. Aggression was going to cause him to fight. 27/

That’s when he got injured in the struggle because he got thrown back into his seat. But again: he needed to be subdued and restrained, and that is exactly what we did. After that, though, it became my mission (no pun intended) to keep him talking at any cost. 28/

Flying home on 9/11 on Wednesday was just a little harder for me mentally, not going to lie.

I’m obviously still processing, but man, that was an experience I never thought I was going to have, nor one I was seeking. 29/

Of course, when I landed and got to the @LucidMotors factory (2 hours late, after 8 hours of travel, instead of 2), apparently the story had gotten around, Susanne handed me a pile of zipties and said ‘just in case anyone acts up,’ and it was all smooth sailing from there. 30/

A good laugh, a stiff drink, and time with great people was just what I needed. Riding in a Gravity and a Sapphire didn't hurt either. :) 31/EOM

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