Sandy MaloneBoston, MA – Videos filmed by other passengers on a Boston-bound United Airlines flight on Monday showed a passenger threatened to “kill every man on this plane” before attacking a flight attendant (video below).
The incident occurred about 45 minutes before landing on March 6, on a direct flight from Los Angeles to Boston, after flight attendants noticed that somebody had unlocked an emergency door on the plane, CNN reported.
Crew members had been alerted that the “starboard side door” had been unlocked and noted the lever had been moved to the unlocked position, NBC News reported.
The videos showed 33-year-old Francisco Torres screaming from his seat after flight attendants discovered that he had unlocked an emergency door on the plane.
Federal officials said flight attendants “confronted Torres about tampering with the door, to which he allegedly responded by asking if there were cameras showing that he had done so.”
Videos showed Torres sitting in his seat screaming at flight attendants and other passengers that he was going to “kill every man on this plane.”
Then he got up and tried to return to the door he’d unlocked, which was being guarded by several flight attendants, NBC News reported.
Officials said that Torres stabbed one of the flight attendants multiple times with a broken spoon that he had fashioned into a weapon in the restroom.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said the flight attendant was stabbed in the neck three times, NBC News reported.
Charging documents showed Torres claimed he “believed the flight attendant was trying to kill him, so he was trying to kill the attendant first.”
Torres was arrested when the flight landed and charged with a count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon, NBC News reported.
He was scheduled to appear in federal court on March 9.
If convicted, Torres is facing life in prison for his attack on the flight attendant, NBC News reported.
United Airlines said in a statement that it has “zero tolerance for any type of violence on our flights.”
The statement also said Torres had been banned from flying on United flights pending the outcome of an investigation, according to NBC News.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
NEW VIDEO OF MIDAIR ATTACK: Footage shows the moment passengers on a United Airlines flight subdued a man they say tried to open the emergency exit and allegedly tried to stab a flight attendant. ABC’s Lindsay Watts reports. pic.twitter.com/CASxqqeAgF
— ABC World News Now (@abcWNN) March 7, 2023
Holly Matkin
