Shortly after United Flight 1074 took off around 10:15 p.m. Monday from Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, Two quick-thinking passengers in the third row tackled and subdued a man who was heading toward the cockpit screaming “jihad, jihad.” The flight attendant gave some sort of command to stand back, and he turned and started for the cockpit. The man who tackled him said, “ Did you hear it? Like he said ‘jihad’ a couple times. In the end it was more surreal than it was scary. It was wild.” Joshua Lindstrom said that a man was acting strangely as he moved up the aisle. The Boeing 737 jet was supposed to take its 33 passengers and six crewmembers to Denver, but turned back because the unnamed passenger “failed to comply with crew instructions,” United Airlines spokesman Luke Punzenberger said. The plane returned to Dulles around 10:40 p.m.

Airport police took the unruly passenger off the plane and airport firefighter-EMTs transported him to a nearby hospital. The passenger has not been arrested or charged with a crime, officials said. There is nothing in the tackled man’s background to suggest he has a connection to the terrorists, the government source said. No weapons were found after he was subdued.