Massachusetts man Francisco Severo Torres, 33, has been charged with attempting to open an emergency exit door and attacking a flight attendant whereas on a United Airways flight between Los Angeles and Boston. Authorities charged him with one depend of interfering and tried interference utilizing a harmful weapon in opposition to flight crew members and attendants. The District of Massachusetts United States Lawyer’s Workplace, the FBI, Massachusetts State Police, and the Boston Police Commissioner introduced Torres’s arrest in a March 6 press launch.
The incident reportedly started when the flight crew obtained an alarm warning of a disarmed aspect door. A flight attendant checked and found that somebody had moved the door’s locking deal with and disarmed the emergency slide arming lever. One other attendant reported that Torres was pacing in a galley space and tampering with the door. The incident additionally concerned Torres allegedly making stabbing motions towards a flight attendant with a damaged steel spoon, finally hanging the attendant within the neck earlier than passengers tackled him and — together with the flight crew — restrained him.
Earlier than flight attendants launched into their common pre-takeoff briefing, Torres had allegedly requested one other passenger to level out the door deal with’s place on the security card.
Torres was arrested after touchdown at Boston‘s Logan Worldwide Airport. If convicted of the costs in opposition to him, he might face anyplace from 5 years of supervised launch to life in jail and a superb of as much as $250,000.