(Trends Wide) — A rogue passenger on a Jet Blue flight Wednesday from Boston to San Juan was charged by the United States government with interference with flight crew members and aides, according to court documents filed Thursday in United States District Court. United in Puerto Rico.
The passenger, Khalil el Dahr, was “physically restrained by flight crew members in response to a physical altercation during the passenger’s attempt to gain access to the flight deck,” according to an FBI affidavit based on interviews. with the flight attendants on the flight.
The incident began, according to the affidavit, when El Dahr tried unsuccessfully to make a phone call from the plane and became angry that the call could not go through. Later in the flight, he allegedly “ran to the flight deck yelling in Spanish to be shot.” As a flight attendant tried to prevent him from entering the cockpit, El Dahr allegedly grabbed the attendant by the tie while kicking the attendant in the chest, according to the affidavit from the attendant’s version.
“As THE DAHR screamed, he was still holding the JetBlue attendant by the tie. This resulted in the tie tightening and ultimately preventing the JetBlue attendant from breathing,” the affidavit reads. “In response, the JetBlue aide released EL DAHR to loosen his tie and avoid being suffocated and incapacitated.”
Eventually, six or seven members of the flight crew were involved in the effort to immobilize El Dahr, according to the record, and the tie – as well as other makeshift restraints – were used to immobilize the passenger in the rear of the plane. When crew members initially tried to restrain El Dahr with flexible headbands, he resisted so much that he “was able to break the headbands and free himself,” the affidavit said.
A second flight attendant told the FBI that El Dahr “requested that he be shot and killed” and indicated that he spoke Spanish and Arabic.
Information about El Dahr’s lawyer is not yet in the case file. According to the record, a federal judge issued an arrest warrant on Thursday, but the warrant itself was not available to the public.
Trends Wide is reaching out to Jet Blue for comment.
The affidavit was first reported by the Daily Beast.