Too Bizzaro for words

Richard Bizzaro could serve 20 years for disrupting a recent Delta flight. Was he actually acting out the heroic impulses we're supposed to be cultivating?

By Amy Standen

Feb 20, 2002 | When Delta Air Lines passenger Richard Bizzaro was led off his Feb. 9 flight in handcuffs and accused of interfering with the flight crew -- a charge that could earn him 20 years in jail or a $250,000 fine -- most people took him for just another nut oblivious to post-Sept. 11 airline decorum. Indeed, defying federal air marshals seems to border on insanity. But in our haste to purge the skies of kooks and crackpots, we might well have overlooked a significant possibility: Richard Bizzaro displayed nothing less than patriotism, vigilance and heroism -- the very qualities we've all cultivated in ourselves since air travel changed forever five months ago.

It started in the bathroom. Bizzaro, the CEO of an herbal supplements marketing company, was on his way to Salt Lake City and had gotten up to use the lavatory. In conjunction with the tight Olympics security, a new federal law forbids passengers from leaving their seat during the first and last 30 minutes of all Salt Lake City flights. Bizzaro entered the lavatory about 25 minutes before landing, and as he left it, he was confronted by a flight attendant. According to the attendant's account, Bizzaro -- who is 6-foot-2 and weighs about 220 pounds -- silently stared her down. Then he returned to his seat, at which point things took a turn for, well, the bizarro.

This comes from an FBI statement recounting the incident:

"[Special agent] Illes observed Bizzaro give what he believed to be a hand communication or 'thumb's up' to another passenger seated in 2A. At this time, air marshals on the flight took control of both the first class and coach cabins. In the first class cabin, Demarest and Illes identified themselves, displayed their badges, and instructed the passengers to remain seated facing forward with their hands visible and on top of their heads. The passengers complied, however Mr. Bizzaro kept lowering his hands, leaning into the aisle, and turning around to look aft toward the coach cabin. He continued this behavior despite Special Agent Demarest's repeated instruction to keep his hands on the top of his head and face forward."

Understandably, most media accounts of the incident give an impression of Bizzaro as obnoxious and belligerent -- the kind of guy who bullies flight attendants and thinks himself above such trivialities as airline regulations. This may or may not be the case. Either way, it's irrelevant to the fact that in a slightly different scenario, Bizzaro could have been America's next Todd Beamer or Mark Bingham.

Bizzaro tried to explain his actions in a statement released last week through his lawyer.

"When the young men claiming to be sky marshals directed everyone in the plane to place their hands on their heads, I did not initially believe them. They were dressed in street clothes and one of them wore a ball cap backwards. They did not give the appearance that they were law enforcement officers and I did not pay them the proper respect. I believed I was witnessing a hijacking of our airplane."

The details here matter, and they vary widely. Did Bizzaro sleep through the announcements asking passengers not to leave their seats for the first and last 30 minutes of the flight -- as he alleges -- or was he awake, as the marshals report? Did he try to intimidate the flight attendant? Or was she rude to him? Did he give a thumbs-up to one of his neighbors, as the marshal's account alleges? Or did he do no such thing, as Bizzaro insists?

Regardless of how disruptive or obnoxious Bizzaro was or wasn't, his account suggests he was doing exactly what all airplane passengers have been instructed to do since Sept. 11: be vigilant. In the wake of the attacks in New York and Washington, Americans face a strange new conundrum. We want stealthy in-flight security systems, but we're also primed to be on the lookout for stealth. In his State of the Union speech, President Bush himself singled out the watchfulness of the American Airlines flight attendant who noticed Richard Reid -- the alleged "shoebomber" -- behaving strangely on a flight from Paris to Miami. In this new culture of civic valor and heightened alert, how do we distinguish potential heroes from belligerent troublemakers?

Next Page: What if the air marshal's I.D. is fake?

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