Passengers evacuated from an Air France jet in Arizona after a Jordanian man, who boarded despite having a canceled ticket, refused to leave the plane.
Qais Ahmad Tillawi went to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to catch Sunday’s Air France Flight 69, but his boarding pass was voided due to his use of an unauthorized credit card, according to an FBI affidavit cited by the New York Post.
Despite that, the FBI said Mr. Tillawi still made it through the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint using the terminated pass, according to court documents cited by Phoenix’s KTVK.
The pass did cause him problems when he tried to board the flight. He refused to hand over his passport, then shoved it in the airline employee’s face.
The employee told FBI agents that they let him onto the flight despite not finding his name on a list of passengers, according to the affidavit as cited by People.
Once on the plane, Mr. Tillawi paced the aisle and refused to sit down, claiming that his assigned seat felt “suspicious and wrong.” He then refused the captain’s order to leave the plane, resulting in the evacuation, according to the Post.
Mr. Tillawi’s brother told FBI agents that the would-be passenger was addicted to marijuana had been diagnosed with psychosis. The brother also told the agents that Mr. Tillawi previously was detained at an airport in Dubai and briefly put into a mental hospital there, according to the affidavit.
Mr. Tillawi refused to speak to agents but wrote to them using his phone, saying that he was a “citizen of the world” and going to shop in Paris, according to KTVK.
He was charged with interference with a flight crew and entering an aircraft or airport area in violation of security requirements, KTVK reported.
Flight 69 ultimately left Phoenix after a two-hour delay and landed safely in Paris without further incident, according to FlightAware.
