Marines help flight crew detain passenger during overseas flight
Article by Immanuel Johnson in "Stars and Stripes":
Three Marines “stacked up” outside the door of a jetliner’s bathroom
and detained a passenger who had barricaded himself inside and screamed
threats during a flight from Japan to Texas.
Capt. Daniel Kult, Sgt. John Dietrick and Pfc. Alexander Meinhardt, all
with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, were on their way back stateside
Monday when they heard the disruption, the Marine Corps said in a
statement.
“We all heard the commotion and instinctively knew something needed to
be done,” Dietrick, an assault infantry Marine, told Stars and Stripes
via text message Wednesday. “The only thing that was going through our
heads was to ensure the safety of all passengers on board and our fellow
Marines.”
The trio was about halfway through a six-month deployment to Camp
Schwab on Okinawa as part of the service’s Unit Deployment Program. But
for different reasons, each was cleared to travel back to the U.S.
despite the Defense Department’s coronavirus-related stop movement
order.
“Honestly we just kind of naturally positioned ourselves in a manner to
cover the exit and cover each other,” Kult, an infantry officer from
Coon Rapids, Iowa, told Stars and Stripes.
They gathered in a tactical “stack” at the lavatory and prepared to
subdue the passenger as a flight attendant unlocked the door. They
restrained him after the flight crew provided flex ties — locking
plastic cable ties often used as handcuffs.
“You know how to work with a team, and you are trained to calmly insert
yourself into a stressful situation,” Kult said. “Even though we are
all different ranks, we’ve had shared experiences in training that made
this an easy situation.”
After restraining the passenger in a seat, they watched him for the
duration of the flight, which was diverted to Los Angeles International
Airport, the statement said.
The passenger was transported to a hospital for a mental evaluation,
and federal authorities are investigating the incident, it said.
The Marines who aided the flight crew are “men of action,” said their
battalion commander, Lt. Col. Chris Niedziocha, who said he knew all
three of them.
“Honestly, I’m not surprised,” Niedziocha said of their actions.
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