TAM Passenger Attacks Pilot, Forces Emergency Landing

A Brazilian airliner made a forced landing after a passenger reportedly attacked a pilot and crew members.

The Associated Press reports that TAM Airlines jet was en route from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Sao Paulo when a man who some passengers said was wearing a TAM identification badge got into the cockpit because the door was open. Shortly after, the plane dove to the right, causing passengers to scream and the pilot to yell for help over the speaker system.

Uruguay's Industry Minister Roberto Kreimerman was on board the Saturday afternoon flight, leading a trade delegation that was on its way to China. He told Uruguayan newspaper El Observador that when the plane veered sharply, passengers started screaming and fearing for their lives.

The jet safely landed at the Porto Alegre airport in southern Brazil about 20 minutes after the incident with the man subdued in the rear of the plane, a police spokesman said Sunday. The suspect was arrested by federal police and taken to a mental care facility.

TAM confirmed the incident in a brief emailed statement, but offered few details. An airline spokeswoman in Sao Paulo would not confirm if the cockpit was breached nor if the attacker was a TAM employee, as passengers told newspapers in Brazil and Uruguay.

The suspect was eventually tied up with plastic handcuffs, taken to the rear of the plane and pinned into a back seat.

The unidentified passenger who spoke to the El Pais newspaper said that "the man injured various passengers, biting them and hitting them. Luckily that was the worst that happened, but it could have been a tragedy."

Federal police inspector Luiz Daiello told Porto Alegre's Zero Hora newspaper the suspect had "suffered a psychotic attack" while on board. The man calmed down as the plane was landing.

But Daiello said once federal police tried to take the man into custody, he became violent, and had to be subdued with a stun gun before being taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.