The summer travel season is upon us, and that’s going to lead to some incidents, as it so often does. In an incident on Friday night, a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Minneapolis was diverted to Madison, Wisconsin, after an “unruly passenger” tried to breach the airliner’s cockpit.
He failed, and was taken into custody in Madison.
A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Minneapolis diverted to Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday night after an “unruly passenger” caused a security concern on board, the airline said.
Air traffic control audio reviewed by CNN captured crew members of United flight 2005 describing a passenger who had made “multiple attempts to try to breach the cockpit” before law enforcement officers on board were able to restrain him.
After the plane landed in Madison, the passenger was detained by local authorities, FBI spokesperson Caroline Clancy said in a statement to CNN.
Federal agents and law enforcement officers responded to the airport, but officials have not disclosed the passenger’s identity, whether any charges have been filed or what specific actions led to the detention.
One passenger described the scene:
Mike Rundle, a passenger on board the flight, described to CNN a tense situation that unfolded midair.
A fellow passenger “saw the man at the front of the plane near the cockpit, in their words, kind of reach for a flight attendant, and subsequently had multiple guys hold him back,” Rundle said.
And, earlier:
Prior to the flight’s takeoff, Rundle said the man who was later detained had “stood up during the taxiing at O’Hare” International Airport and was asked repeatedly to sit down.
Crew members asked whether anyone on board could speak Russian and asked that person “to come to the front of the plane to help interpret,” Rundle said. The man eventually sat down and the flight took off.
That last bit is the interesting part; the “unruly passenger” spoke Russian?
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That doesn’t mean the passenger was a Russian national. Many people speak Russian, and in places like Cuba, it’s a very common second language, so we can’t really infer anything from that. As for the passenger’s identity and possible origin, that information hasn’t yet been released.
As of this writing, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not released any statement on the incident on their official site. There was a statement made to CNN:
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to CNN the flight landed safely after the crew reported a passenger disturbance, noting that airlines have reported more than 640 unruly passenger incidents so far this year.
The FAA “investigates all passenger-disturbance incidents” and pursues legal enforcement action “against any passenger who assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crewmembers, and can propose civil penalties up to $43,658 per violation.”
The good news? The veritable armor-plated status of modern airliner cockpit doors proved up to the task; there were apparently several off-duty police officers on the flight who were able to restrain the “unruly passenger,” the plane landed safely with no damage, and nobody was hurt.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned.
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