Plane passenger arrested after stripping off during flight

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 11:53

A PASSENGER stripped naked during a US Airways flight and resisted a flight attendant's efforts to cover him with a blanket before two off-duty law enforcement officers on board subdued and handcuffed him, authorities said.

Keith Wright, 50, of the Bronx in New York, was taken into custody after he disrobed while sitting in his seat in the back of Flight 705 on Tuesday evening.

The plane was carrying about 148 passengers from North Carolina to Los Angeles, the airline said.

Wright was unresponsive when a flight attendant asked him to put his clothes back on, said Dan Jiron, a spokesman for the Albuquerque airport.

"She asked him on more than one occasion to put on his clothes. She covered him with a blanket and he took that off," Mr Jiron said.

Wright punched and kicked the flight attendant, who asked two off-duty law officers for help, according to a criminal complaint.

A Los Angeles police officer and sheriff's deputy helped the flight attendant subdue and handcuff Wright before the flight landed, Mr Jiron said.

The flight attendants also were dealing with an unrelated onboard medical emergency at the same time, which exacerbated the situation, the FBI said.

The aircraft was diverted because of the medical emergency, and Wright's actions were a secondary reason for the unplanned landing, the complaint said.

Roger Finzel, an assistant federal public defender representing Wright, said he has not yet met with his client and had no information about the case other than what was in the complaint.

Wright told the FBI he is suffering from a bipolar disorder and had not taken his prescribed medication before leaving New York that morning, the criminal complaint said. Wright told the FBI he recalled nothing about the flight or his behaviour, it said.

Wright is in US federal custody on a federal charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. He is expected to appear in court today.