Air marshals detain 2 passengers, point guns at others

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Federal air marshals drew their guns and pointed them at passengers after they subdued a man during a flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia Saturday, a federal official said Sunday.

The man had been acting "in an unruly and obstreperous manner," said David Steigman, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Steigman would not say what the man was doing.

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Flight attendants, who considered the passenger "not just a nuisance but a risk to the safe conduct of the flight," alerted the marshals who told the man to stop, Steigman said.

But the passenger refused, "so they restrained him," Steigman said, meaning that the passenger was tied down.

Passenger James Lineberger, seated in coach class in the row behind the passenger, said he did not see what the man was doing.

But Lineberger, a Pennsylvania court judge, said he watched as the two air marshals emerged from the first-class section, grabbed the passenger, and walked him back to the first-class area.

"Minutes later, both officers drew their weapons," said Lineberger. "They pointed them toward the back of the plane. They were motioning as though they were about to have a gun battle with someone. I assumed there were terrorists in the back that had surfaced somehow after this one guy had been apprehended."

Lineberger said the marshals kept their guns drawn and aimed toward the rear of the plane for the remaining 25 minutes of the flight. He said no one panicked, but many were "terribly nervous."

Lineberger said he plans to file a complaint against the air marshals.

Steigman said federal air marshals "will only draw firearms if numerous verbal warnings have been ignored. In this case, numerous verbal warnings to passengers on the aircraft to sit down were ignored."

But Lineberger said he could find no reason the marshals may have had to pull their guns.

The TSA said it has heard from passengers who are willing to testify on behalf of the air marshals.

The marshals detained a second passenger before the rest of the passengers deplaned, Steigman said.

Both passengers were accused of unruly conduct and released later Saturday. They were not charged.