Incoherent Man Forces Return of Jet to LAX

A Pan American World Airways 747 jet bound for New York with 269 passengers abruptly turned around in mid-flight and returned to Los Angeles Saturday after a passenger began ranting incoherently and threatening others on the plane, witnesses and authorities said.

The disoriented male passenger was taken into custody by police after the jumbo jet landed at Los Angeles International Airport shortly after noon. A police bomb squad removed the man’s luggage but found no explosives, officials said.

No charges were filed against the passenger, whose name was not released. Los Angeles police questioned him and determined he had committed no crime.

He was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance for psychiatric evaluation, said Sgt. John Hone, an officer at the Los Angeles Police Department’s airport station.

The plane did not resume its flight to New York until 5 p.m.

The flight, Pan Am 90-A, initially had taken off for John F. Kennedy Airport in New York at 10:15 a.m. Slightly more than an hour later, the plane’s captain radioed air traffic controllers in Los Angeles, asking for permission to return.

“The captain elected to return because a passenger was interfering with the flight crew,” said Federal Aviation Administration duty officer Jerry Acosta.

Several passengers sitting in the rear of the plane described the man as thin and well-dressed, with black hair slicked back. The witnesses said he behaved strangely and babbled incessantly through most of the flight.

“I was talking to the guy and he was acting extremely eccentric,” said Bob Martino, 26, of Bronx, N.Y., who sat two seats away from the man. “He was a real weirdo. I got really nervous and asked to see the captain.”

David Love, a Boston man sitting a row in front of the disoriented passenger, said he heard the man ask: “What do you do when your number’s up?”

A woman sitting between Martino and the man said she became so alarmed by his behavior that she moved to another seat. She said the man frightened her by repeatedly--and without any prompting--assuring her that the flight would be a safe one.

After the woman moved, Martino prepared to do the same. The man then became briefly and chillingly coherent, telling Martino: “Don’t try to leave or I’ll throw you out of the plane.”

Several flight attendants repeatedly went back to talk to the man, witnesses said. One of the attendants brought a first-aid kit and an oxygen mask. “People were constantly in and out of there. I was petrified,” said Los Angeles physician Joe Gutman.

The plane’s captain also talked briefly to the man. Witnesses said that just before the plane landed, the captain, who was not identified, told passengers over the public address system that a faulty gauge was forcing the crew to return the jet to Los Angeles.

Crew members who left the plane would not comment on the incident and airline spokesmen could not be reached.

Police led the man off the plane in handcuffs. Martino said that when officers began to remove the man’s bags, he told them that one of the bags was his, prompting officers to handcuff him and take him off the plane. Martino was released after police were satisfied he was not involved with the other man.

Bomb squad members, including one officer protected in a flame-retardant suit, boarded the plane and removed the man’s luggage. Later, authorities said they had not discovered any explosives.