SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — A man who would only identify himself as Jesus is being called a hero by fellow passengers and crew members of a flight that a hijacker tried to commandeer into landing in San Diego.
Jesus was onboard the flight Sunday morning from Guanajuato’s Bajío Airport to the Mexican border city of Tijuana.
“A short time into the flight is when it happened,” Jesus said.
Jesus and others say the hijacker rushed to the front of the plane, grabbed a flight attendant and demanded the flight’s final destination be outside of Mexico.
“His intention was for the flight to land in San Diego,” Jesus said.
Another passenger, Gerardo Gonzalez, described how the hijacker put a pen against a flight attendant’s neck and threatened to open the door and jump to his death and take the flight attendant with him if the flight did not change course.
“He grabbed the handle and actually managed to crack the door open,” Gonzalez said. “There were people screaming, crying, pleading with the man not to do it.”
Gonzalez called it an “act of terrorism.”
“If he had opened that door, it would’ve killed all of us.”
That’s when Jesus confronted the man and subdued him.
“I talked to him calmly, reasoned with him, told him to think about his wife and children and the others,” said Jesus. “His life had been threatened, that’s why he wanted to land outside of Mexico.”
According to Jesus, the man agreed to give up and that’s when the flight made an emergency landing in Guadalajara.
Mexican National Guard troops were there waiting and took the suspect, described as a 31-year-old man named Mario, into custody.
The flight then continued on to Tijuana.
“Luckily, I was able to convince him,” Jesus said to a group of reporters who interviewed him outside Tijuana’s airport.
The suspect’s wife and children were on board the same flight, but were not taken off the plane and continued with the flight to Tijuana.
