During a Sunday flight from Los Angeles to Boston, a passenger on United Airlines was detained after he allegedly attempted to open the emergency exit door of the aircraft.
Francisco Severo Torres, 33, sparked fear on United Airlines Flight 2609 after he was seen pacing near the aircraft door before the United Airline flight crew was alerted that it had been disarmed.
A flight attendant investigated and discovered that the doors lock handle had been moved from the fully locked position and the emergency slide was disarmed.
When confronted, Torres began threatening to kill all of the men on board from his seat. He can be seen in the recorded video making threatening gestures with his arm, wielding a broken spoon as his weapon.
“So where’s Homeland Security with a gun? Because I am waiting for them to point the gun at me so I can show everybody that I will die when I take every bullet in that clip – and I will kill every man on this plane,” Torres shouted. “So where are they? Where’s Homeland Security? Pull the gun! Pull the gun! You’re not going to try and stop me?”
“I don’t care if I’m scaring you. I don’t care. I don’t care. The women will be fine. Sit back down,” Torres instructed a flight attendant. “Why are you scared? … Well, tell them to bring SWAT to shoot me down because they’re going to have to shoot me down today. Remember that.”
In a recent tweet posted by @ABC7:
"I will kill every man on this plane!" A madman goes on a mid-air rampage on a #United flight from L.A., threating to kill other passengers before trying to stab a flight attendant. Eyewitness News with the terrifying takedown. Tonight at 11 from ABC7 https://t.co/Agn5TBtCQz pic.twitter.com/losm00DV66
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) March 7, 2023
As Torres headed to the cockpit, he approached two flight attendants standing in his way making stabbing motions at them before being able to stab one of them. Passengers and other attendants followed and forcibly restrained him.
Torres was arrested and charged with one count of attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon. With these charges come a potential sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
No injuries were reported.
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