GSA CIO tweets from endangered plane
FCW Insider recounts the story of General Services Administation CIO Casey Coleman's harrowing flight, during which a passenger attempted to open an exit door in mid-air.
This weekend, Casey Coleman, the General Services Administration’s chief information officer, happened to be aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Las Vegas when a passenger attempted to open an exit door on the airplane during the flight.
Coleman tweeted about the event from her seat on the plane: “During our flight to Las Vegas, some lunatic tried to open the front exit hatch in midair. About a dozen men rushed him [and] held him down,” Coleman tweeted at 4:15 p.m. on Jan. 23.
One minute later, Coleman tweeted: “The flight attendant surrounded this nut with big male passengers while we diverted to Denver to drop him off w/the FBI there.”
“There is clearly a new alert and assertive spirit of self-defense among American air travelers!” she added.
According to news reports, the passenger stood up abruptly from his seat, pushing his way down the aisle to the front of the plane. Passengers panicked when the large man tried to open a side exit and made his way to the cockpit, another passenger told the New York Daily News. A number of other passengers stopped him and forced him into a seat, the report states. The plane made an emergency landing in Denver soon afterward.
Authorities were awaiting the man when the plane touched down in Denver, according to news reports.
Once the ordeal was finished, the flight finished the last leg of the trip.
“We are boarding a different plane now and should be on our way to LAS soon. #UA223,” Coleman tweeted finally at 6:16 p.m.