The Delta Airlines Airbus A330 landed in Bangor after Stansberry gave a note to a flight attendant and then responded yes when federal air marshals asked if he had explosives. At the time, the Florida man was returning home from the African nation of Burkina Faso, where he had been working for a defense contractor.
US District Judge John Woodcock ruled that sleep deprivation, stress, dehydration, and ingestion of body building supplements contributed to Stansberry’s psychotic break, which lasted several days.
Stansberry’s problems began when a flight attendant had trouble understanding him, so she asked him to write a note, according to court documents.
Stansberry produced a rambling note filled with military jargon and acronyms in which he declared, among other things, that he was not a US citizen, that his passport was a fake and that he had illegally visited Burkina Faso.
The flight attendant alerted air marshals, who questioned him. Asked if he had explosives, Stansberry responded yes and described dynamite with a pressure switch in his bag, authorities said.
He later said there were explosives in his laptop computer, as well.
Stansberry later told FBI agents on the ground that he made up the story to divert attention from classified information he said he had.
No explosives were found.
READER COMMENTS »
View reader comments » Comment on this story »