Passenger praised for subduing man who tried to stab United flight attendant

Jeff Neil says he intervened after thinking of his wife who was sitting next to him on flight from Los Angeles to Boston

A man who led the charge in subduing a fellow passenger who tried to stab an attendant on a flight from Los Angeles to Boston and attempted to open the aircraft’s emergency door has said he intervened after thinking of his wife – who was traveling with him – and his family.

“Honestly, I did it for [them], first and foremost,” Jeff Neil told the Boston television news station WCVB. Neil, who is from the relatively nearby community of Exeter, New Hampshire added that he hopes the man with an apparent mental illness whom federal authorities charged with the attack on the flight “gets the help that he needs”.