Passenger faces charges after charging into jetliner cockpit

Associated Press WriterCHICAGO (AP) -- Startled by a screaming man's charge to the cockpit, at least a half-dozen American Airlines passengers leapt to their feet and pinned him down as he crashed through the door, witnesses said.

"There wasn't much time. It was just a matter of seconds before he was actually in the cockpit and people were already trying to subdue the guy," passenger Shawn Costa told CBS' "The Early Show" on Tuesday.

"We all took pretty much a limb and restrained the gentleman for the duration of the flight," Costa added.

During the struggle on Monday, the pilot made a distress call and two F16 fighters intercepted Flight 1238 from Los Angeles and escorted it to Chicago, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said.

No one was injured, and the plane landed safely at O'Hare International Airport with a crew of nine and 153 passengers.

Edward A. Coburn, 31, of Fresno, Calif., was in custody and was to be charged Tuesday with interfering with a flight crew, a felony, Rice said.

"This man had some sort of mental problem. He is on medication and under a doctor's treatment," Rice said. "This is not a terrorist incident and was not related in any way to the attacks on Sept. 11."

The FBI confirmed Tuesday that Coburn made it into the cockpit.

Coburn had charged the plane's cabin yelling his fear that the plane would strike Chicago's Sears Tower, witnesses said.

"He repeated several times that he thought the devil was flying the plane and he was concerned we were going to crash into the Sears Tower," passenger Chris Fredericks said. "He was yelling it actually for at least 30 minutes as we held him down."

Perry Rice of Peoria, who was flying home after a fishing trip in California, said he was alarmed that no sky marshals were on the flight.

"What shocked me was he ran up, hit the cabin door and it bounced right open," he said. "Where was the security?"

Rice said Coburn's father, who was also on the flight, alerted the flight crew shortly before the plane left Los Angeles that his son was acting strangely and suffered from some sort of illness.

American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan on Tuesday said she had yet to speak to officials who interviewed the pilots but she is certain they would not have left the door open. The company announced on Oct. 2 that it will secure all cockpit doors, she said, "but it will take us about a month to do so. We've got more than 700 planes."

Existing cockpit doors, designed to allow crew members easy escape in an emergency, must be strengthened within 90 days by order of Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta.

"One good thing is the men knew exactly what they were going to do when they saw that guy charging," Pennsylvania resident Bill Neff told the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster, Pa. "We as individuals need to have our eyes and ears open wherever we are. The rules have changed."