A girl who yelled profanities at a flight attendant and threatened to kill him brought on an airplane to make an unplanned touchdown and was charged on Monday in a federal courtroom with interfering with the flight crew.
The Alaska Airways flight, scheduled final Friday from San Francisco to Chicago, landed at Kansas Metropolis Worldwide Airport in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., as a result of the pilot was involved for the security of the passengers, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Monday.
The girl charged, Chloe M. DaSilva, 32, had requested if she may change seats, however flight attendants advised her the aircraft was full, based on an affidavit filed within the case. A couple of minutes into the flight, after she had been within the toilet within the rear a part of the aircraft for an prolonged time frame, she started hitting the toilet door from the within, the courtroom submitting stated. At one other level within the flight, she additionally banged on the overhead bins.
Ms. DaSilva was restrained with zip ties by a flight attendant and two passengers on the captain’s request, the affidavit stated. She didn’t resist.
Six crew members and 177 passengers have been on the flight, the airline stated. Out of warning, a mom and toddler who have been seated in entrance of Ms. DaSilva switched seats with one other passenger. Ms. DaSilva by no means bodily touched any member of the flight crew, a passenger stated within the affidavit.
“After touchdown, the visitor was faraway from the plane by native regulation enforcement officers,” the airline stated. “The flight then continued onto Chicago with none additional incident.”
Flight attendants started monitoring Ms. DaSilva after she had interrupted the preliminary bulletins and security briefing to ask when the aircraft was taking off, based on the affidavit.
As soon as within the air, she went to the again of the aircraft and advised a flight attendant that she couldn’t keep in her seat. She entered the toilet and banged on the partitions. When a flight attendant opened the door for a wellness test, Ms. DaSilva was seen sleeping and was left there, based on the affidavit.
Ms. DaSilva punched the overhead bins whereas returning to her seat, based on the affidavit. A while later she threatened to kill a male flight attendant, the courtroom submitting stated.
Ms. DaSilva, who was arrested on a felony cost of interference with a flight attendant and was being tried within the Western District of Missouri, faces a possible most penalty of 20 years and no necessary minimal sentence, the prosecutor’s workplace stated. The general public defenders listed in courtroom paperwork as representing Ms. DaSilva couldn’t be reached for remark.
The episode is amongst many who have concerned unruly passengers on flights and which have raised questions in regards to the security of crew members lately. The Transportation Safety Administration resumed providing self-defense courses to flight attendants and pilots in 2021.
A Frontier Airways flight in November 2022 from Cincinnati to Tampa was diverted to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport after a passenger was seen with a field cutter. In September 2022, a lady was sentenced to 4 months in federal jail after spitting on a passenger and shoving a flight attendant on an American Airways flight.
In 2021, an off-duty flight attendant took management of the speaker system and made an announcement about oxygen masks, prompting a violent confrontation, during which he was subdued.
