As a consultant, Doug McCright has made countless trips across the country. After Tuesday's flight home, all he's counting are his blessings.
“If I wouldn't have been in that seat or if it had been two minutes later, you know, it could be written about on the news in a whole different way,” McCright said.
With about 30 minutes left in his flight from Milwaukee to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, McCright said a man approached a flight attendant in the front of the plane.
“You could sense that this conversation was not going well,” recalled McCright.
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McCright said the flight attendant motioned behind her back, indicating she needed help with the passenger, so he unbuckled his seatbelt, put down his laptop and stood up.
"All the sudden, he turns and says, 'I need to get off this plane. I’m getting off this plane.' We're 30,000 feet in the air, flying 300 mph. This guy's not getting off the flight,” McCright said with emphasis.
McCright said the man then rushed toward the flight attendant and came within two feet of grabbing the door handle before McCright "bear hugged" the man, according to a police report.
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“When I grabbed him, there was a minute or two minutes of chaos,” said McCright.
McCright said he and several other passengers took the man to the floor of the galley and then duct-taped his ankles and wrists until the plane landed.
“It’s kind of what America is about,” said McCright.
On the ground at Terminal C, the flight was met at the gate by DFW Airport police and Dallas FBI agents, who took the disruptive passenger into custody for a medical evaluation.
McCright snapped a photo when it was all over. In the photo, he has a bloody lip that he doesn’t remember getting and is standing next to two men who he said helped subdue the passenger.
One man, McCright said, is a flight marshal who happened to be assigned to the flight. The other works in security.
“He said, ‘Today you made a difference. There's 100 people alive because of what we did,'” McCright said tearfully.
A flight attendant was taken to a hospital, according to the police report.
In a statement, American Airlines said, “American Airlines flight 1915 with service from Milwaukee (MKE) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) was met by law enforcement upon arrival at DFW due to a disruptive customer. The safety and security of our customers and team members is our top priority and we thank our team members and customers for managing a difficult situation.”
