NH man helped tackle passenger who attempted to stab flight attendant, tried opening exit door on Boston-bound flight

By Arielle Mitropoulos

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    MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (WMUR) — As chaos ensued on a flight on Sunday, one Granite Stater stepped up to help keep passengers and flight attendants safe.

Jeff Neil, of Exeter, New Hampshire, was on his way home from Los Angeles to Boston on a United Airlines flight, after a trip with his wife, when a fellow passenger, seated in the row in front of him, began yelling and threatening passengers and crew members.

Neil said the situation started to escalate when a crew member asked Francisco Severo Torres, 33, of Leominster, Massachusetts, if he had tried to open an emergency exit.

“He just just got aggravated and agitated,” Neil said. “He had stated that he was willing to kill the entire plane and then he stepped in the aisle and said, ‘I’m now going to take over the plane.’ There was there was no other option at that point.”

As Torres moved toward the front of the plane, Neil chased behind him.

“I just simply wanted this guy to just stop. And I’m not sure what I would have done if I actually had grabbed him at that point,” Neil said. “But because he moved away and chased after the flight attendant, it made it really easy to just go and grab him and try to end it as quickly as we possibly could.”

Neil was able to tackle him to the floor and — alongside several other passengers and flight attendants — restrain him until the flight got to Boston.

“It took maybe about 10 minutes to restrain him in such a way where we could get — not only the zip-tie handcuffs on his legs, but to be able to put one on one arm and one on the other arm,” Neil said.

Torres was in federal court Thursday after investigators said he tried to open an emergency exit door of a United Airlines plane and stab a flight attendant in the neck with a spoon on Sunday.

Neil has been called a hero by many people, but he insists this was a group effort to make sure everyone on the plane was safe.

“There were many people that stepped up. It only takes one maybe to start to charge,” Neil said. “But there was many people that stepped up in many different ways.”

Torres was charged with interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon.

Federal prosecutors are now asking for Torres to undergo an evaluation to see if he is fit to stand trial.

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