The State - News from May 26, 1986

A Colorado convict’s unsuccessful escape attempt and an airliner scare kept police busy at San Francisco International Airport. Airport Police Sgt. Tom O’Neill said Christopher Risk, 26, broke away from two deputies and leaped 25 feet from the upper level of a terminal to the lower roadway before he was recaptured. At about the same time, several hundred people were evacuated from a People’s Express Boeing 747 after a man ran from the Newark, N.J.-bound plane, leaving his carry-on luggage behind. O’Neill said the man, identified only as a Californian, was detained while bomb-sniffing dogs searched the aircraft and found no explosives or weapons. “It turned out the man had claustrophobia,” O’Neill said . “He wanted to get back on the plane, but it was denied.” O’Neill said Risk, who was in the custody of Colorado authorities to serve out a 40-year-sentence for robbery, kidnaping and shootings, suffered a broken arm and foot in the fall and was in stable condition at a hospital.