Unfriendly Skies: Unruly Passenger Tackled

2 New Yorkers run to the rescue of a slugged flight attendant.

A tackle worthy of a Jet.

Two New Yorkers saved a flight attendant from a unruly, screaming passenger on a JFK-bound American Airlines flight early Thursday morning, according to the Daily News.

An hour before the plane from Rio de Janeiro pulled onto the runway, 36-year-old restaurant owner Ramiro Silos said he heard the big-boned man "screaming something about his sons" and saw him punch a male steward.

"The guy was big and he was screaming, screaming, screaming. I could not understand him. But when we took him down, we took him down hard," Silos told the Daily News, referring to himseslf and friend Fernando Gil.

Police identified the troublemaker on Flight 256 as Michael Isabelle, a 63-year-old from Framingham, Mass. Port Authority police escorted him to the psych ward at Jamaica Hospital after the plane safetly landed at around 7am. No charges have yet been filed, the Daily News reported.

Silos, who studied ju jitsu in Brazil for nine years, said he was finishing up breakfast when he heard the raucous and saw Isabelle screaming at the flight attendant, who sources identified as Carlos Carrico.

"He looked like he was trying to get to the bathroom and got mad because the [beverage] cart was in the way," said the Brazilian-born New Yorker. "The guy was screaming at this Carrico and punched him and knocked over the cart.

The two New Yorkers punched the screaming man and bound his wrists using plastic ties, Silos said.

"We were worried because he was acting crazy," Silos said. "We didn't know what was going on.

 

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