San Francisco Flight Diverted Due To Unruly Passenger

SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT -- An AirTran flight headed San Francisco Airport on Friday had to be diverted because of an unruly passenger.Military jets scrambled to divert the plane to Colorado Springs, just hours after it had taken off from Atlanta.Over 130 passengers and five crew members were on board flight 39, the ordeal started two hours before the plane was scheduled to land.Passengers say a man sitting near the back started yelling and became irate."He wouldn't calm down. He kept saying the flight attendant disrespected him," said passenger Daniel Chan of Berkeley, "somebody sitting next to me said he had downed five bottles of wine in less than an hour."Passengers say the man then went to the lavatory."We were sitting in the back of the plane of the plane and this man kept going in and out of the bathroom and he was causing a commotion and disruption," said 16 year-old passenger Brandon Brown.The pilot decided to make an emergency landing at the closest airport, which was Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.Two F-16 fighters escorted the plane as it came in for landing.Passengers say six police officers came on board and tackled the man and an FBI agent used a taser.They bomb sniffing dogs then came through to make sure nothing else was wrong.Several of the passengers were high school students from South Carolina, headed to San Francisco for a school field trip.They said they got a lot more than they bargained for."I was so nervous. I didn't know what to expect," said Marylee Martin, "I didn't even know what to do I've never experienced anything like it.No one was hurt during the incident.The FBI has identified the passenger who was taken into custody as 46 year-old Muhammad Abu Tahir of Virginia.He is expected to face federal charges of interfering with a flight crew.