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Passengers Were 'High-Fiving' After Subduing Man Charging Cockpit

DENVER (CBS4) - Two passengers pinned down a man who tried to rush the cockpit on a flight headed into Denver, and the men who jumped in to keep that from happening say it was a split-second decision.

Don Digby and his friend and coworker Scott Maldonado are being hailed as heroes. They were supposed to be on a direct flight from Boston to Denver on Tuesday and at the last minute decided to switch flights and fly through Washington, D.C. to try to get home early.

Flight Emergency (1)
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It was on the flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Denver when the two men pinned down the man who tried rushing the cockpit of United Flight 1074.

"When he was running up the alarming things he was saying … he said 'jihad' two or three times … 'the plane was going down, the plane was going down.' And just really alarming things," Digby said. "Scott and I knew at that point we could not let this individual have one inch."

Digby said Maldonado, who has a military background, took the lead and began calling out commands to get the unruly passenger subdued.

"We took the unruly passengers shoes off and Scott frisked him and didn't find anything, fortunately. But it was pretty tense," Digby said.

RELATED: Passenger Who Rushed Cockpit Making Jihad References Tackled By Men From Denver

The pilot at that same time was trying to get the plane back on the ground.

Also on that plane was Donna Tellam from Boulder. She watched as the men wrestled the passenger to the ground.

"It just went from every range of emotion, basically, and then relief that we were safe," Tellam said. "I knew we were safe once they were on top of him."

Flight Emergency (2)
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Digby and Maldonado felt relief when it was all over.

"We were high-fiving … it was an awesome, awesome feeling," Digby said.

The incident isn't believed to be act of terrorism despite what some of the passengers reported hearing. The unruly passenger has not been identified. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

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