tonight on "nightline" -- cabin pressure. a flight attendant, seemingly unhinged. rants about crashing and 9/11, over the intercom. 100 passengers terrified. and some jump up to help subdue her. we'll have the latest on the developing investigation. after the tsunami. we were there in the wake of the monster quake, the killer wave, and the nuclear meltdown. every one of these people has lost a loved one. tonight, we travel back to japan, one year later. what you didn't know about the nuclear disaster and the terrifying long-term effects. plus, one for the books.

unicycling, under water. pogo-sticking in sam bode ya. racing a yak while in a sack. meet the guy that has so many guinness world records, he has the record of records. what will he do next? >> announcer: this is "nightline," march 9th, 2012. good evening. i'm bill weir. they're there for your safety, wee reminded before every takeoff. the courtesy and beverage are always a nice bonus. but maybe it's because so many flight attendants are so professional, that today's episode in dallas was so startling. it began when a member of the cabin crew got on the intercom, mentioned her employer's bankruptcy filing. and then, went on a rant, that caused passengers to get physical. here's pierre thomas. >> reporter: this blood-curdling scream is what scared the hell

out of the passengers. and made the children aboard american airlines light 2332 cry. >> our flight attendant on flight 2332 has gone nuts. >> reporter: it was just before 8:00 a.m. this morning as the plane was making its way towards the runway at the dallas airport, bound for chicago. then, the bizarre day began. a flight attendant was on the plane's intercom, standing right in front of the cockpit door, ranting and raving. >> she had said, i'm the number one in charge. talked about 23 years being there. started talking about bankruptcy. but it really got everyone's attention when she said, we'll probably have to go back to the gate. and she said, i'm not responsible for this plane crashing. and that's when everybody started freaking out. >> most of us were looking at each other. trying to understand what was going on. she began to say over and over on the p.a. >> reporter: mindful of 9/11, passengers decided to take matters into their own hands. it's all caught on tape. >> they're physically

restraining the flight attendant as we speak. she's talking about crashing the plane. >> somebody go help. >> at least we're not off the ground. >> she was putting up a pretty good fight. there was activity for a bit. >> reporter: that's when the screaming starts. >> she was just screaming. just blood-curdling screaming. it was sad. it was very sad. >> get out of my way. >> that's when the girl behind me called 911. finally, she got 911 on the phone. and said, i am on the plane. and the plane needs to stop. >> i ran up to the front of the plane to assist. >> reporter: brad leclair was one of the passengers who raced into action. >> there were two gentlemen restraining her. one holding each arm. and i tried to calm her down. she mentioned she was bipolar. as she began speaking about the events of 9/11. she was very strong. in a manic state. adrenaline was pumping. so, she was trying to get away. and she was almost successful.

i told her to go back to her training. what was the first thing you learned about being aflight attendant. she said something. i said, no. remain what? she said calm. i said let's remain calm. >> reporter: he said she made one more chilling statement before the police arrived and put her in handcuffs. >> and towards the end of this struggle, she did say i'm going to kill them all. >> reporter: the struggle continued as police started to take her away for psychiatric evaluation. >> all the people are carrying her across into the car. >> reporter: when it was over, passengers were relieved. and many were thankful that the incident did not happen in flight. >> had she done this in the air, it would have been a whole different story. >> reporter: especially given the access and freedom flight attendants have to move about the plane. >> you absolutely want to identify any event on the ground and deal with it as opposed to having to deal with it subsequently up in the air. when you're thousands of feet in the air, it literally is a pressurized cabin. >> reporter: the irony of it all

is that in many cases, the flight attendants are the first line of defense. >> today is an event because flight attendants are first responders. and that was opposite case today, that there were others who had to respond to this flight attendant who was obviously in need of help. >> reporter: tonight, no charges have been filed. so far, police see this as a case of a troubled woman, more so than a crime. american airlines emphasized that travelers were never in danger. and that the passengers, while delayed, did eventually make it to chicago. albeit a bit shaken. >> i will never get that sound of her screaming out of my head. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm pierre thomas, in washington. and coming up, it is the worst nuclear disaster since chernobyl. one year after that horrifying tsunamquake, we travel back to japan to find out which is more dangerous. fallout? or fear? [ male announcer ] if your kids like movies with animals...

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city, with bill weir. japan was rattled again today when a magnitude 5.4 quake struck that seismic nation. damaging mostly nerves. but that is no small thing in a place still traumatized by the real-life disaster film that began a year ago sunday. to see how our ally is coping after the quake, the i killer wave, and nuclear meltdowns, i went back to japan this week to find a place and a people profoundly change. our coverage of the tsunami, one year later. it was a friday afternoon. schools were about to let out. office workers were thinking about the weekend and heading for the trains. and then, it began.

when they felt the first rumbles, the lights began swaying, some shrugged. some thought, it's just another quake because in japan, a little rattling is a part of daily life. in fact, here's the seismic activity leading up to that fateful day. each red circle indicates a tremor. the bigger the circle, the bigger the magnitude. but watch what happened on march 11th, at 2:46 p.m. the big one, 9.0. as the shaking even went on for minutes, people had long stopped shrugging. and many on the coast began running, driven by fear of a tsunami. from a helicopter it looked like spilled soup, crossing a green table in slow-motion. until the camera pushes in. and you realize that soup is made from houses and cars and entire communities.

high ground was the difference between life and death. a year later, that sea water has receded. the shock has not. it takes your breath away to see the stone outlines where there were once houses. to see this automobile graveyard. twisted bits of metal, showing the power of that wave. they found 1,100 bodies in this 1 town. but they're actually more fortunate than most because there's a lot of towns, up and down the coast, where families are still looking. in some places, the transformation is incredible. in the big city of sendai, if you didn't know what happened here, you wouldn't know what happened here. but this is deceiving because only 5%, 250 million tons of debris, has been permanently removed. in some places, they just sorted it into massive piles. some coastal towns are still

debating whether to rebuild at all. while in others, the pain is still too raw. the ground too sacred. like okawa elementary school. some teachers wanted to head for that hill. others thought it was too steep. and thought that bridge was a better place to ride it out. while they stood in this yard with these children in their slippers debating, the wave ripped through this valley at about 30 feet high. 74 kids and 10 teachers were swept away. but for every tale of woe, there are many more stories of survival. and waiting patiently outside is this heartbreaking line. a year ago, we saw an endless line outside of the only functional hospital. people were hoping to see the name of a loved one on a list. while at a bridge nearby, stood

yuko, desperately searching for her 4-year-old son. when this photo hit newspapers around the world, she became a face for her nation's pain. and while it took three days, she found him. scared but unhurt. i felt numb, she tells me. all feeling left my body because i was so relieved to finally see him. now, every, single day is precious to me. and takeshi, the doctor who was trapped for days while his wife was prepared for labor. he made it in time to see their son. and little ray is now learning to walk. beyond the wreckage and debris, the spike in suicides and ghost sightings. there's an invisible remnant in this disaster, in the form of radiation, after the triple-meltdown, at fukushima. geiger counter picks up trace amounts of radiation in the soil

and the trees. and the detector outside of the train station is a constant reminder of the new normal. tainted water and food has been found as far as 200 miles from the plant. but there have been no reports of radiation sickness yet. japanese government and some outside experts predict the long-term effects will be minimal. but no one is sure to believe that, after the government and the plant operator downplayed the crisis publicly. while privately, they were so underprepared and overwhelmed, they considered evacuating tokyo. do you trust what the government tells you about the radiation levels? it's not just the government, she says. even among nuclear experts, they have different opinions. we just don't know how to process it all. what's dangerous? what isn't? in a nearby town, local mothers demanded an indoor park so kids could have a radiation-free playground. i don't want to stay inside, said this mother of two.

they get outside maybe 30 minutes a day, or 30 minutes a week. you can see why health experts from around the world say more people will die from stress-related illness than radiation-related cancer. a year ago, we were all struck about how the japanese kep their legendary order, peacefully lining up for food and gas. >> not selling my gasoline. >> reporter: marty crooner showed it to us. a baseball team, he evacuated sendai with his wife and daughter. while japanese people never dreamed of questioning authority during the crisis, they are now. >> there's a saying in japan, which means it can't be helped. >> reporter: stuff happens. >> yeah. and this happened. and you might not be happy with what happened. but you have to put up with it. most people are upset with, if not fed up with, the government.

and don't believe a lot of what they're saying. but there's still a resolve to go forward. to go on. >> reporter: and we're surrounded by the proof of that effort. this auditorium is just one of many around the disaster zone, filled with family photos. pulled from the tsunami mud, carefully cleaned and organized, on the off chance their owner survived. on the off chance, they'll one day wander in and find a piece of the life that was washed away. one, little memory, to add to the new lives still under construction. little ray. and our thanks to our tokyo reporter, akiko fujita for her help. more of our reporting on abcnews.com. coming up, juggling underwater with sharks. what is this guy doing? he's making history.

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367. that is how many guinness world records have been held or attempted by the man you're about to meet. everything from gigantic hula-hooping to jumping rope underwater. so, you ask, what drives this most prolific of record-breakers? abc's t.j. winick finds out. >> reporter: if flippers on dry hand, or a unicycle underwater, it might look like ashrita furman is training for the circus. >> they think i'm crazy. >> reporter: but he may be the most prolific athlete you've never heard of. >> felt great. i want to do it again. i juggled underwater with sharks. i raced against a yak in a sack.

and i beat the yak. >> he has, at one time or another, attempted and held 367 guinness world records. >> i don't think of myself as the great guinness record holder. i think of myself as a big kid who is having fun. >> reporter: if you define fun as jumping rope underwater 900 times in 1 hour, or pedaling 1.8 miles below the surface. guinness most famously keeps records for natural wonders. everything from the tallest man, the biggest gold nugget, to the fattest twins. but then, there are those superlati superlatives, or triumphs of the human spirit. >> there's a dichotomy of measurement and chronicling records. but also the slightly off-the-wall, interesting, unexpected world of record-breaking, where you really have to expect the unexpected. >> reporter: no one exemplifies

that more than furman. the 67-year-old egg-stacking, hula-hoop record holder from queens. >> ashrita furman is the embodiment of stamina, distance, and shear and utter dedication to his cause. >> reporter: what about looneyness? >> what's looney to you might not be looney to him. >> reporter: he's been a discip disciple. >> you have boundless energy. and as i started meditating, i thought, wow. what am i going to do with all this energy? >> reporter: he focused that energy on breaking records. now, it takes a lot to turn heads in new york city. >> all right. yeah. >> reporter: that's what he's been doing ever since. not just on the streets of queens. but in the amazon. at the leaning tower of pisa.

all of china. >> we do have a sense of expectation, in terms of what is this guy going to do next? >> reporter: he caught me offguard, throwing me over his shoulder, in what is kind of a ritual for the record-holder. did i mention that he also holds the record of running the fastest mile carrying a person of equal weight? >> you don't have to be a superathlete. you don't have to be a celebrity. anyone can be a guinness world record holder. >> reporter: i asked you if there would ever be an end to the guinness record? >> that's like saying will you ever get tired of eggplant parmesan. it's something that i love. it's something that gives me joy. it keeps me in shape. it's a challenge. i see my spiritual progress. everything i could possibly want is there. so, why would i ever stop? >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm t.j. winick, in new york. >>