Soccer Wrestlers in Flight

A man in his early twenties had to be subdued on American Flight 725 enroute to Los Angeles. The plane, a Boeing 757, made an emergency landing in Oklahoma City for authorities to take into custody. The man was taken for psychiatric evaluation.

I like to play soccer but I never watch it on television. I'm not very good at it but it's fun. I don't appreciate wrestling at all. After I turned seven or eight and learned they were actors I figured a good action pack show is much better than a fake sport. What do you get when you are on an airplane in flight and you combine the two? You get a passenger trying to escape.

According to FBI: Soccer team members help subdue man on flight by Richard Green members of the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer had helped to subdue a man that tried to open an emergency door in mid flight. The soccer team's general manager, Craig Tornberg said the man had came out of the plane's bathroom naked. He told the man he needed to put his clothes on. According to Craig Tornberg's account the man told him he didn't see him or hear him. The man did go back into the bathroom and put his clothes on.

Then he tried to shoot for the door and when he did, he got captured by Craig Tornberg, the assistant coach, Gwynne Williams and the team's vice president for player personnel, Michael Burns. After the three men grabbed the man they held him in a seat while a flight attendant tied him up. Then the pilot made a slight change in course and went to Will Rogers World Airport where the man left the plane. Oklahoma City Police took custody of the man and he was taken to a crisis center for mental evaluation.

Craig Tornberg said a short time before the incident he had seen the man crying and talking jibberish. He described the man as clean cut and in his early twenties.

I hate to see this happening on a flight where someone is intent on hurting themselves and they don't care if others go with them. I believe this was a cry for help and luckily there were people there to hear it.