[NBC] Marine Sgt. Maj. Jody Armentrout was sitting at an exit row seat on Saturday's All Nippon Airways Flight 114 traveling from Tokyo to Houston when he noticed a man was acting strangely.Armentrout, a sergeant major who has served in the Marines for over 20 years and is based in Japan, has been trained to be vigilant. He said he saw the man take his backpack to one of the bathrooms, then come out and go to another bathroom and then, another bathroom.
"He came out of that one and began pacing up and down the aisle, so that just threw my radar on," Armentrout, 50, said in a phone interview.
But then, Armentrout said, he saw the man eyeing up the emergency exit right next to him. Armentrout said he stood up, putting himself between the man and the exit door.
That's when the man turned around, ran through the plane's galley and darted to the exit door on the opposite side, Armentrout said. He knew he had seconds to act.
"He grabbed a strap around the door, pulled it off, and about that time is when I took him and slammed him, put him on the ground," Armentrout said. "And then there was an older gentleman sitting on that side that woke up, and he got up and kind of helped me."
Armentrout said flight attendants handed him zip ties, which he placed around the man's wrists and used to secure him to a seat. It was announced that the plane would be diverted to Seattle as a result of the incident, and Armentrout said he sat next to the man until they landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
"His eyes — you could definitely tell there was something going on," Armentrout said.