On a flight from Los Angeles to Boston, a passenger attacked a crew member with a broken spoon. The man is said to have tried to open an airplane door. Apparently he had planned that before departure.
On a domestic flight in the US, a man is said to have tried to open an emergency exit and then attacked a crew member. The 33-year-old fell on a crew member with a "broken metal spoon" and tried to stab his victim in the neck, the prosecutor's office in the east coast city of Boston said. The attacker was eventually overpowered by passengers and pinned down with the help of other crew members.
Police arrested the man after the plane landed at Boston International Airport. The incident happened on a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston on Sunday. According to the public prosecutor's office, an alarm went off in the cockpit about 45 minutes before the planned landing that one of the doors of the machine was unlocked. A crew member checked the door and saw that the lever was about a quarter open.
A flight attendant then reported seeing the 33-year-old near the door. There was an exchange of words with the passenger, who wanted to know, among other things, whether cameras had recorded the incident. A short time later, the man then attacked a crew member with a broken metal spoon. The victim, whose gender was not specified, suffered "no serious injuries," United Airlines said.
In interviews with witnesses, passengers said that the man asked about the door handle before take-off. Before the attack, he is said to have walked up and down the galley with a spoon. The man was brought before a judge in Boston after his arrest. He faces life imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 for attacking a plane crew member with a dangerous weapon.
