Chris Llewellyn was staring out the window of Delta Airlines Flight 110, watching the landscape of Los Angeles rise up toward the plane, when he heard the screams of a male flight attendant: "Help me! Help me!"
Turning quickly, he saw that a passenger had pushed the attendant to the floor and was trying to open the rear emergency exit.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, January 09, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 57 words Type of Material: Correction
Passenger heroes: An article in Thursday's Section A about hip-hop musician Chris Llewellyn and other passengers on an L.A.-bound flight who subdued a man claiming to have a bomb did not include a credit for the A1 photograph. The photo taken on a cellphone camera of authorities escorting the suspect was taken by Llewellyn's bandmate Brian Cohen.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, January 11, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Passenger heroes: An article in Thursday's Section A about hip-hop musician Chris Llewellyn and other passengers on an L.A.-bound flight who subdued a man claiming to have a bomb said the plane was a Boeing 757. It was a Boeing 767-400 series.
"Don't come near me," the man warned. "I have a bomb. I have a bomb."
"I thought this guy was going to open the door. I was thinking, 'I'm not going to go down with the plane,' " said Llewellyn, 26, a 6-foot guitarist, who was flying into Los Angeles from Atlanta on Wednesday morning for a TV appearance with hip-hop artist Asher Roth.
Along with half a dozen other passengers, Llewellyn ran down the aisle into the galley area and jumped on the man, pulling him away from the door.
"He was struggling hard-core," Llewellyn said. "I was holding down his arm. Somebody had a foot on his head. Everyone was holding down a different body part. He was going nuts. I was telling him to chill because he's not going any place."
The jet landed safely and no bomb was found. Still, local and federal authorities credited Llewellyn and the other good Samaritans with helping save the day.
The incident was the latest example of passengers joining to prevent someone from doing harm during a flight. Perhaps the most famous example was on 9/11 when passengers on United Flight 93 fought terrorists, forcing the jet down in Pennsylvania and foiling a plot to crash the plane into the U.S. Capitol.
There have been other cases in recent years. In 2005, passengers aboard a Southwest Airlines flight bound for Florida helped wrestle a fellow passenger to the floor after he tried to force his way into the cockpit. The next year, a passenger who claimed to have a bomb aboard a Sacramento-bound United flight was subdued by passengers. Months later, an unruly passenger on an American Airlines flight from Seattle to St. Louis had to be handcuffed and strapped to his seat with the help of several passengers.
On Wednesday, many of the other 230 people on the Boeing 757 were grateful that fellow passengers stepped in.
Mary Hughes, 48, a state correctional records official from Panama City, Fla., said she first became aware of a problem when she saw other passengers running by her seat screaming, "No! No! Don't! Stop him!"
