Crew, Fliers Tackle Man Banging on Cockpit Door

Yesterday was a day of airplane security disturbances: In the third incident reported so far, crew members and passengers wrestled a man to the ground after he started pounding on the plane's cockpit door. Rageit Almurisi, 28, brushed past a flight attendant on last night's flight while screaming incoherently, and was tackled by a male flight attendant as he began pounding on the door. American Airlines Flight 1561 was about 10 minutes from landing at San Francisco International Airport at the time.

A few passengers and crew members assisted the flight attendant, and Almurisi was put in plastic handcuffs and taken into police custody after the plane landed safely. He was carrying a Yemen passport but his nationality is not clear, the AP reports. He has been charged with the federal offense of interfering with a flight crew, but no motive has been established and one officer says he does not know if the incident was related to terrorism. Click to read about the other two flight security disturbances. (More airplane stories.)