PORTLAND A Saudi Arabian teenager has been indicted on charges of interfering with a flight crew after authorities alleged he tried to hit fellow passengers, took a swing at a flight attendant and referred to Osama bin Laden during a flight to Houston.

Police arrested 19-year-old Yazeed Mohammed A. Abunayyan on Tuesday night at Portland International Airport after his Continental Airlines flight turned around after the incident.

A cousin said that his relative suffers from schizophrenia, was flying home to see his sick mother and hasnt taken his medication for three weeks.

The cousin, Fahad Alsubaie, 21, told the Medford Mail Tribune he was escorted off the plane with Abunayyan. Alsubaie said the disruption began after a flight attendant confronted the two for sitting together, because Alsubaie was in the wrong seat.

I was going to ride back with him, just to make sure he was safe. They didnt want us to sit together, said Alsubaie, a Saudi Arabian exchange student studying English at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.

Wednesdays indictment said a flight attendant asked Abunayyan to stop smoking an electronic cigarette, but he refused. He is also accused of yelling profanities and swinging his fist at the flight attendant and hitting or attempting to hit several passengers.

Abunayyan also spoke or sang about Osama bin Laden and his hatred of women, the indictment said.

When they asked him to stop the cigarette … he just went crazy, I couldnt stop him, Alsubaie said.

Passenger Mark Foster told KGW-TV that he and others aboard the flight were prepared to take action.

You could tell buckles were off, he said. People were already leaning toward the aisles.

Asked whether the FBI considered Abunayyan a terrorism threat, spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele noted that the indictment was on interfering charges, not terrorism.

Ashland police believe Abunayyan is the same teenager who led police on a slow-speed chase in the Southern Oregon town Sunday, ramming two police cars and nearly hitting a pedestrian. He was accused of drunken driving and assaulting an officer and was released on bail Monday.

The cousin said he was the person hanging out the drivers side window trying to pull the key out of the cars ignition while Abunayyan was driving away from police Sunday in Ashland.

When I asked him about what he did in Ashland, he said, Not me, other person inside me, Alsubaie told the newspaper. He thinks he has a different personality.