Hero Utah cops save 'suicidal' wife from taking an overdose on their flight home from NYC funeral for murdered NYPD officer

• The flight bound for Salt Lake City landed instead at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport late Sunday after the 32-year-old woman with a medical issue 'created a disturbance'
• Once the plane arrived at O'Hare, an ambulance took the woman to an area hospital, where she was being evaluated
• The woman was not arrested, and no charges were pending

By Associated Press Reporter

Published: 21:00 EST, 5 January 2015 | Updated: 23:48 EST, 5 January 2015

Three Utah officers returning from the funeral of a slain New York City policeman helped restrain a suicidal woman on a JetBlue Airways flight until the plane was diverted to Chicago.

The flight bound for Salt Lake City landed instead at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport late Sunday after the 32-year-old woman with a medical issue 'created a disturbance,' Chicago Police Department spokesman Thomas Sweeney said.

Once the plane arrived at O'Hare, an ambulance took the woman to an area hospital, where she was being evaluated, Sweeney said Monday.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Terry Wall, left, and two other Utah police officers returning from the funeral of a slain New York City officer helped restrain an unruly airline passenger as the plane was diverted to Chicago

The woman was not arrested, and no charges were pending, he said.

The unidentified Long Island woman was intoxicated and reportedly so upset fighting with her husband that she began threatening suicide with prescription medication that she was carrying.

'She started writing a note on a spiral notebook. It was in large letters. It was kind of in shaky writing. And what it turned out to be was a suicide note,' Unified police detective Robert Odor told The Desert News. 'So I was reading it as she was writing it. She tried to take the remainder of the pills, I don't know how many. She tried to take the whole bottle. So at that point I intervened and took the bottle away from her, took the note away from her.'

JetBlue Airways spokeswoman Sharon A. Jones said Flight 71 departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport at 7:45 p.m. EST and arrived in Chicago around 10 p.m. CST.

The plane refueled before departing again. It landed at Salt Lake City International Airport around 1:40 a.m. MST, about three and a half hours late.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Terry Wall and two officers from the Unified Police Department in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area described the experience at a news conference Monday, saying the flight crew seated the woman near them about an hour into the flight.

After being seated near the officers, the woman started having a medical issue and became combative. The officers said she tried to kick and spit at them and a doctor who was assisting her.

Wall said they did not handcuff the woman but held her arms and legs for about an hour and a half until the plane landed.

Jones said there were no reports of injuries or any damage to the aircraft.

Wall, Odor and Unified Police Officer Cody Stromberg were among the thousands of mourners attending the Sunday funeral of Officer Wenjian Liu, who was killed in an ambush shooting along with another officer while sitting in their patrol car.