Man With Yemeni Passport Storms Cockpit Door In Flight To San Fran

CBS Sacramento / Ironic Surrealism ^ | May 9, 2011

[library user]

Within 10 minutes of landing in San Francisco. Muslim? Dry run?

Rageh Almurisi in the back of a patrol car at SFO.

SAN FRANCISCO – Federal agents are investigating the background of a California man with a Yemeni passport who pounded on the cockpit door of an American Airlines flight as it approached San Francisco before a flight attendant tackled him, police said Monday.

Rageh Almurisi, 28, does not have any clear or known ties to terrorism, and investigators have not established a possible motive, San Francisco police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said.

……
Almurisi, of Vallejo, Calif., got up from his seat and went toward the cockpit door 10 minutes before the flight from Chicago was supposed to land on Sunday night, authorities said.
……
Almurisi was yelling unintelligibly (In Arabic?? -Ed.) as he brushed past a flight attendant on his way toward the cockpit, Rodriguez said.

Andrew Wai, a passenger aboard the flight, described a chaotic scene, telling KGO-TV that passengers were screaming and crying. “Flight attendants were trying to soothe different passengers,” he said. “We were all looking at our lives flash before our eyes.”Wai said Almurisi appeared “fidgety” when he saw him on the way to the bathroom earlier in the flight.

The Boeing 737 carrying 162 people landed safely at 9:10 p.m. and the man was taken into police custody. The flight came from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, authorities said.

The incident comes amid concerns that extremists will try to mount attacks in retaliation for American commandos killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last week.

Yemen, a nation at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has been a focus of U.S. officials because one of the most active branches of al-Qaeda operates in the remote part of the country.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday that Almurisi was carrying California identification (Fake?? –Ed.)  and was from Vallejo, Calif., a city about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. >>>

Developing…

Update: I have no proof but I swear there was 680 comments on the AP Yahoo hosted article 20 minutes ago and now there are zero.

[Christian Engineer Mass]

Islam is the source of most evil in this world.

[Moose4]

If nothing else, I hope he got a good ass-kicking while he was being restrained. I’m no Rambo, I’m just a fat and out of shape middle-aged guy, but I’d like to think that if I had the guy within reach, I’d at least try something. Hell, just sit my fat butt down on him if nothing else.

}:-)4

[Retired Greyhound]

Rageh Almurisi, 28, does not have any clear or known ties to terrorism

Of course he does. He's a MUSLIM!

[Old Sarge]

Sudden Jihad Syndrome? You decide...

[EGPWS]

While they keep us busy with the aircraft concerns they will be working on another disaster behind our backs outside of aviation.

[iceskater]

Rageh Almurisi, 28, does not have any clear or known ties to terrorism, and investigators have not established a possible motive,

He has a Yemeni passport - how much more obvious can it be?

[Califreak]

I just went to the yahoo posting and there are over 700 comments still present...

[Jack Hydrazine]

It must have been the reggae music that sent Rageh to the front of the bus!

[OB1kNOb]

Yumping Yemini!

[Califreak]

If that doesn’t work, there’s always the trusty phrase “an isolated incident”...

[Old Sarge]

Borrow away! Spread the concept, hell THEY do...

[madprof98]

Perhaps he thought that was the door to the bathroom.

[Brad’s Gramma]

chaotic scene, telling KGO-TV that passengers were screaming and crying.

Does the name Todd Beamer mean so LITTLE anymore???

[Vendome]

I hope he got a proper beat down and kicked in the nuts before the plane landed.

Might have been a good idea to grab hot coffee and throw it on him to get his attention as well.

[turdhopper]

its a cultural thing

[LostPassword]

How do the Amish get a Yemeni passport? I can certainly understand why he was upset. He wouldn’t even want to get in a car so being forced onto a plane must have been very traumatic.

[RobRoy]

A couple years ago, before I created my current tagline, my tagline was this: Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Nazism was in the mid-1930’s.

I still feel that way. It should be treated as a political organization, and not a religious one - like we treated the German-American Bund.