CHICAGO, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- An unruly man tried to enter the cockpit of a United Airlines Boeing 777 jetliner Thursday but the co-pilot hit him over the head with an ax and passengers dragged him away from the door.
UAL Flight 855, en route from Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina, continued on and landed safely. The man, identified by officials as Pablo Moreira, 28, of Uruguay, was arrested.
Air Force officials in Buenos Aires said Moreira told them he did not remember anything after he got on the plane. He will be flown back to the United States Friday and charged with interference with a flight crew.
Passenger Jan Boyer told CNN he was asleep in his first-class seat when he heard a commotion at the front of the plane and looked up to see a man kicking the cockpit door "in sort of a Kung Fu style."
"I said what are you doing, and he said, 'I want to talk to the captain,'" Boyer told CNN.
Moreira was able to wedge himself halfway through a bottom opening in the cockpit door; the co-pilot then whacked him "bluntly on the head" with an ax kept in the cockpit for emergencies, Boyer said.
Boyer and other passengers and crew then dragged Moreira, who was bleeding, away from the cockpit and restrained him in a seat.
A UAL statement commended the flight crew for their "quick action in forcefully and immediately preventing a passenger from gaining entry into the cockpit of the aircraft."
"The passenger never gained full entry due to the reinforced cockpit door bar United has installed on all of its fleet," the statement said. "It is regrettable that our pilots, flight attendants and any passengers had to take these actions, but the cockpit door reinforcement and the quick action of the flight crew allowed the flight to land safely in Buenos Aires."
There were 142 passengers and 15 crewmembers onboard the flight.
