Saw this on the news this afternoon. The situation was pretty scary but apparently the guy said bomb and you can't say bomb on an airplane.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/07/airpla ... index.html

Yeah, he was bipolar and didn't take his medicine. I heard that he was also drunk, but that part might not be 100% true. Anyway, what else should the air marshals have done? The dude said he had a bomb, so he gots to get shot.

Yeah i heard the rumor about him being bipolar also. But i don't know if he was drunk or not. Supposedly if someone appears to be drunk at all they are not allowed on the plane. But yeah i agree, the marshalls did the right thing imo.

Whatever the case, he was stupid and his actions got him shot. His fault. If I was that air marshall I probably would have done the same thing, although I think I would have just wounded him and not killed him. Better to keep for questioning.

They are trained to shoot to kill in a situation where a bomb or other high threat to passengers saftey is being made. Screw negotiating or subduing, Your ass has gotta die, Bi-otch!

I hate to say it, also, but they did the right thing. If the guy HAD been a threat, the first they would have CONCLUSIVELY known was when he splattered them over the runway, and possibly did major damage to the plane itself, killing those inside.

he was just shot and wounded

I read that they were sure if he was bipolar. his mother said he was and supposedly his brother had no idea.

The air marshalls had no way of knowing if he was bipolar or not. For all they knew, his wife could have been working with him yelling that he was mentally ill to blow up the plane. The air marshalls did the right thing. Some dude goes crazy on a plane, and says he had a bomb, he gets shot. What if the guy really had a bomb, and had blown up the plane because the air marshalls didn't shoot him? In their split-second judgement, it was kill the man yelling he had a bomb or everyone on the plane dies.

He said he had a bomb. It's not like it's okay to have a bomb on the plane if you actually are bipolar. Someone who is bipolar could blow up an airplane just as easily as anybody else. He said he had a bomb, and was convincing enough for someone to break through the natural human disdain for homicide.

This just proves that stupidity is a self-limiting factor. Same as that rapper who put a jammed gun to his head and kept pulling the trigger until it actually went off.

The dumbass was saying he had a bomb and was reaching for a bag which may have had a bomb in it. The Air Marshal did the right thing.

As Spock would say: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one."

I thought he yelled he had a bomb and started running for it and wouldn't stop after several calls from an air marshall to freeze or he'd fire. From all accounts I'd say they did the right thing - both during the encounter and after while checking bags. On a side note, crazy people like that piss me off. There was a Jamaican guy on a plan I was taking out of the country that started threatening people, so they taxied all the way back to the airport and dragged his ass off the plane, then had to find his luggage and delayed us getting in to London by 2 hrs. That then led to other delays and us getting on a crappy airline as a makeup.

Crazy people - STOP GETTING ON AIRPLANES. That goes for French people too - no reason beyond I just think theyre crazy too and shouldn't be allowed much freedom to do anything.

You sir, are a fucking idiot.

Oh, I dunno. I thought it was funny.

If you're drunk or even if you appear to be drunk they won't let you on the plane. Plus, once you're on the plane you only get two or so of the little liquor bottle thingys. So not drunk. Maybe bipolar or maybe just very, very stupid.

Anyway the marshalls did the right thing even if it turned out to be kind of a sad situation.