Unlike the woman who was denied access to her cellphone to communicate with her suicidal husband on Southwest, apparently one simply has to take more extreme measures to get attention and handle crisis and Virgin America acted appropriately.
An unhinged passenger scribbled a suicide note aboard a San Francisco flight and threatened to take innocent bystanders with him when he died, fellow passengers said.
The man’s frightened seatmate read the troubling message over his shoulder and warned the crew as the Virgin America flight prepared for takeoff.
“He started writing extremely fast — with anger,” Vicki Riffe told the Daily News on Thursday, just hours after the terrifying ordeal. “I was scared to death.”
Once Riffe had alerted the crew, the Austin-bound flight’s pilots announced over the intercom they need to return to the gate to deal with mechanical problems.
San Francisco cops boarded the plane moments later and took the man into custody.
Virgin confirmed a man was yanked off the flight after some of the 108 passengers grew “concerned about the behavior of a fellow passenger,” but a spokeswoman denied he threatened others.
“The guest in question was escorted off the aircraft at SFO and evaluated by medical professionals,” the airline said...
“The woman who called the man out was amazing,” passenger Eric Berg told the News. “And the captain of the plane, someone needs to give that guy some props. He handled it amazingly well.”