A US citizen tried to open an emergency door on a plane on a domestic flight between Los Angeles and Boston and then attempted to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Francisco Severo Torres, 33, of Leominster, Massachusetts, was run over and tied up with the help of passengers and arrested Sunday at Logan International Airport in Boston as United Airlines Flight 2609 landed, the US Attorney General’s Office said. EE. a statement.
The man was charged with interfering and attempting to interfere with flight crew members using a dangerous weapon, according to the statement.
He was remanded for a first federal court appearance Monday and is awaiting a hearing, scheduled for Thursday.
The plane was about 45 minutes from landing in Boston when the crew received an alert that a side door of the aircraft had been unlocked, prosecutors said.
A flight attendant noticed that the handle that locks the door had moved from the fully locked position about a quarter of the way toward the unlocked position and that the emergency brake lever had moved to the unlocked position, according to The authorities.
The crew then re-locked the door and the security device, a basic security measure, as an aircraft door cannot be opened during flight, under penalty of depressurizing the cabin and killing the passengers and crew. .
Another stewardess claimed to have seen Torres near the door and thought he would be the one to manipulate it, so the crew warned the captain that this passenger was a threat and that the plane had to land as soon as possible, authorities said. indicated.
It was then, according to the prosecution, that Torres got up from his seat, approached two flight attendants who were standing in the aisle and used the broken spoon, hitting one of them three times in the neck, but without causing any injuries. .
The passengers knocked out Torres, who was restrained with help from the crew.
According to a prosecutor’s document, Torres told investigators that he went to the plane’s bathroom and broke a spoon in half to make a weapon, then left and went to the pantry, opened the security door and tried to open it. with the aim of jumping from the plane, according to the document, admitting that he knew that if he did so, many people would die.
If convicted of the charges, the US citizen could be sentenced to life in prison.
Source: TSF
