First Laptop Terror Attack Against U.S. Plane Thwarted by Passengers

A Turkish man was arrested after loitering near the cockpit of an American Airlines flight.

The unidentified man, carrying a laptop,  was standing near a front restroom and when the flight crew asked him to return to his seat, he refused.

When he lunged at the cockpit door, passengers stepped in and subdued the man separating him from his laptop.

U.S. fighter planes were called in to escort the commercial airliner as it completed its flight to Hawaii.

Most of the passengers were unaware that anything had happened until they landed. “No one really paid much attention to it until we landed and the flight attendants would not let anyone get out of their seats,” said Jaren Yang, a passenger. “about 4 FBI agents came on and detained the man who tried to break into the cockpit.”

Authorities have not released whether the man’s laptop contained the explosive battery component U.S. intelligence has feared might be used to bring down a passenger plane.