Tuesday, 10 December 2024
by BD Banks
While incidents of airline passengers breaching and attempting to breach the cockpit have become rarer over the past two decades due to strengthened safety protocols, they still occasionally occur.
In September 2023, for example, an agitated United Airlines (UAL) passenger aboard a flight preparing to take off from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport banged on the cockpit door.
The latest incident took place on a domestic flight on the low-cost Mexican airline Volaris.
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A 31-year-old passenger, identified only as Mario, apparently attempted to hijack the Volaris flight between Leon and Tijuana by shoving a flight attendant and trying to breach the cockpit.
The flight crew restrained the passenger until the flight landed at Guadalajara International Airport (GDL) in central Mexico. The chief executive of Volaris later said that Mario, who was aboard with his wife and two children, had been hoping to steer the flight to the U.S.
“Today we faced an exceptional situation on Volaris Flight 3041, which was covering the El Bajío-Tijuana route,” Volaris CEO Enrique Beltranena said in a written statement. “A passenger tried to divert the aircraft to the United States.”
The Mexican secretary of security and citizen protection says that the details are currently being investigated while the passenger remains in custody. It is not immediately clear whether he was armed.
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After the passenger was led off by authorities, the flight continued on to Tijuana after a delay of about two hours.
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“All passengers, crew and aircraft are safe,” Volaris said in a further statement. “Volaris regrets the inconvenience this situation has caused. For Volaris, the safety of our passengers and crew is a top priority.”
The airline also said that it was pursuing a legal case against Mario.
Another incident of an attempted cockpit breach occurred on an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight in March 2024 when a 19-year-old student pilot, Nathan Jones, caused a disturbance while traveling from San Diego to Washington Dulles International Airport.
Statements from airport authorities said that he kept going toward the front of the plane and trying to open the cockpit door. Flight attendants sought assistance from off-duty law-enforcement officers, who “restrained Jones in flex cuffs and sat on either side of him for the remainder of the flight,” NBC News reported.
An affidavit from an air marshal stated that when flight attendants asked Jones what he was trying to do with the cockpit doors, he said he was just “testing them.” Jones was charged with interfering with a flight crew, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
And in an April 2024 incident that didn’t breach the cockpit but violated airline protocols, a United Air crew came under both regulatory and public fire after social-media footage showed that it let players from the Colorado Rockies NHL hockey team sit in the pilot’s seat and pretend to steer the plane.
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