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A federal grand jury indicted an unruly American Airlines passenger after he caused a Dallas-bound flight to divert to Salt Lake City last month due to his unruly behavior - that includes him shouting he was “sane” and trying to open the aircraft’s doors.
Eric Gapco, 26, of New Jersey was handed federal charges of interference with a flight crew and attempted damage to an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the US following the incident, which was caught on passengers’ phone. He was accused of assaulting an flight attendant, used a vape pen on board, screamed and disrupting other passengers as well.
A group of passengers and flight attendants needed to restrain the man during the flight on July 18. In one of the videos, the man is inside the plane’s bathroom yelling, “I am sane!” and “I do not want to hurt myself!”
As a group of people huddled around the bathroom, the man yelled, “He’s hurting me!”
An indictment and federally filed complaint stated Gapco assaulted and intimidated a flight attendant, tried to open the forward and aft aircraft exterior doors multiple times mid-flight, locked himself in the lavatory, vaped on board, screamed and bothered other passengers, according to KSL-TV.
The flight’s passengers aided flight attendants after Gapco’s hands and feet were restrained with plastic handcuffs.
In the videos, Gapco can be heard asking a passenger, “Hey did you record that?” as he’s being dragged to a seat.
Once the plane arrived in Salt Lake City, police officers boarded the aircraft and tried to get Gapco to stand up in order to escort him off the flight.
“I have clots in my legs, I need hospitalization,” the man said. “I need to go to a hospital!”
Officers later managed to get Gapco off the plane. In one of the videos, he walks down the aisle slowly and sings, “You say potato, I say potahto.”
