A MENTALLY disturbed airline passenger who pretended that he had a bomb in his bag was killed yesterday at Miami airport in the first shots fired by sky marshals since they were introduced on US flights after the 9/11 attacks.

The passenger, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, and thought to be a US citizen, had just boarded American Airways flight 924 en route from Medellín, Colombia, to Orlando. He was shot on a passenger ramp as the Boeing 757 was about to take off.

Mr Alpizar and his wife are said to have arrived from Ecuador. They were joining the flight in Miami.

According to a witness, Mrs Alpizar tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medicine. Officials said that the passenger ran off the aircraft after being confronted by air marshals.

“A passenger claimed to have a bomb aboard in a carry-on bag. At that point an air marshal team confronted the individual aboard the aircraft,” Brian Doyle, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, said.

“The passenger immediately exited the aircraft through the jetway, heading back toward the terminal. The air marshal team pursued the subject into the jetway and ordered the subject to get down the ground.

“The passenger appeared to be reaching for a carry-on bag, the air marshals took appropriate action, shots were fired,” Mr Doyle said.

Mary Gardner, a passenger on board the flight, told a local television station in Miami that the man had run down the aisle from the rear of the aircraft. “He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air,” she said, adding that a woman followed, shouting, “My husband! My husband!” “I did hear the lady say her husband was bipolar and had not had his medication,” Ms Gardner said. “I saw the woman, I think she was English-speaking, blonde hair, she was hysterical.”

Richard Falkenrath, a security analyst from the Brookings Institute, told CNN: “This has every indication of a great tragedy. Questions will be asked whether they [the air marshals] had any reason to believe he was mentally unstable.”

Neighbours of Mr Alpizar, who lived in Orlando and worked in a hardware store, were puzzled by the way he was depicted in reports of the shooting. “He was a nice guy, always smiling, always talkative,” said Louis Gunther, who was looking after the family home while the Alpizars were away.

After the shooting, police boarded the plane and told the 113 passengers to put their hands on their heads. Ms Gardner said: “It was quite scary. They wouldn’t let you move. They wouldn’t let you get anything out of your bag.”

As Swat teams surrounded the aircraft, investigators spread passengers’ bags on the tarmac, used sniffer dogs to search for explosives and blew up two bags. No bomb was found, and James Bauer, the agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals’ field office in Miami, ruled out any connection to terrorists.

The airport concourse where the shooting took place was shut for 30 minutes, but the rest of the airport continued to operate as normal.

Times Recommends

• Experts baffled by vanishing sea lions
• CIA caught in a dirty and secretive war
• Double life of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab