Passengers subdued man with satchels on Dulles-Vegas flight

Earl W. Stafford said he had just awakened from a nap in first class of United Airlines Flight 223 Saturday night when a large man holding two satchels came down the aisle from the coach section.

First, the man tried to open the cockpit door, Stafford said. Then, Stafford said, he began to shake the handle of the airplane's front exit door.

Stafford jumped up from his aisle seat.

It was the key moment in the drama that unfolded with startling suddenness high in the sky as the jetliner, carrying 129 passengers and a crew of five, headed toward Las Vegas from Dulles International Airport.

"I grabbed him from behind and spun him around," said Stafford, 61, an entrepreneur who lives in Centreville.

"I yelled: 'I need help! Somebody get the bags!' My fear was that he was going to try to detonate an explosive."

Ultimately, the airplane interrupted its flight to land safely in Denver, where authorities took over. But it was the passengers who intervened to protect themselves and their fellows.

The response appeared to stem at least in part from heightened sensitivity to threats, such as that posed by the man who allegedly tried to detonate explosives aboard a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas.

Four other passengers also gave accounts of the flurry of action in the cabin.

Art Thomm of Martinsburg, W.Va., said he had spotted the man earlier and said he had seemed to be staring into space. "He looked crazy," Thomm said.

When Thomm heard the commotion at the front of the plane, he ran up the aisle to help.

He said the man pushed back against Stafford and "threw [Stafford] off him."