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'Came Out Of Nowhere': Woman Says Man Lunged Over Her To Try To Open Plane Door

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- We know more tonight about the weekend flight into MSP that petrified passengers. Witnesses say a passenger tried to force open the exit door while the plane was in flight.

Video taken by a passenger shows police escorting a man off the American Airlines flight coming from Los Angeles Saturday.

The FBI confirms they are now working on the case.

On their six week Australian adventure, there wasn't much Drake University pharmacy student Katrina Zerwas and her family didn't see or touch.

Katrina Zerwas
(credit: CBS)

"We got to hold a baby koala while we were down there, too! She was pretty cute, her name was Hazel. So it was a fun trip ... until the end," Katrina said.

Katrina and her Dad were glad to have scored more spacious exit row seating. Twenty-four hours of travel behind them, they were on their third and final flight home to Hugo, the plane was descending.

"It just all the sudden came out of nowhere," Katrina said.

She says a man who wore glasses and a hood the whole flight lunged over her and her father and the man on the aisle.

suspect on American Airlines flight
(credit: Richard Munassi/YouTube)

Her father Eugene Zerwas says the man "started to reach across my daughter and I couldn't figure out what in the heck he was doing. I looked over and he reached and he grabbed that handle and he kinda said something like, 'I want to see what this does,' and I told him, 'To hell you're gonna see what this does.'  That's when I grabbed his hands and forced him back in the aisle and got him back in his seat."

Eugene is military-trained. He's wearing a maroon shirt in the video. Katrina says the man returned to his nearby seat and screamed out saying his name is Dalton Carlson.

"My dad kept saying, 'What was going through your mind doing something like that?' The first thing he said was, 'I was just looking out the window.' We're like, 'No, no, no, no don't try to do that to us, we know exactly what you are doing,'" Katrina said.

Katrina's father directed police to the man she says caused the uneasiest of landings.

Katrina says passengers say the man in question was acting odd the whole flight, pacing and getting confused over the latch to the bathroom door.

The FBI saying they are working this case and thus far, there are no federal charges.

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