A Massachusetts man was sentenced to time served after greater than two years in jail for making an attempt to open a United Airways emergency exit door mid-flight earlier than attempting to stab a flight attendant within the neck with a damaged metallic spoon, officers stated.
Francisco Severo Torres, 35, pleaded responsible in Might to at least one depend of interference and tried interference with flight crew members and attendants utilizing a harmful weapon within the 2023 incident.
He was sentenced on Tuesday to time served after spending about 26 months in custody, the Division of Justice stated in a press launch. His sentence included 5 years of supervised launch, throughout which he received’t have the ability to fly on a business flight, officers stated.
Prosecutors stated Torres tried to open a facet door of the aircraft about 45 minutes earlier than touchdown throughout a United flight from Los Angeles to Boston on March 5, 2023.
“Upon inspection, a flight attendant discovered that the door’s locking deal with had been moved out of the absolutely locked place — roughly 1 / 4 of the way in which in the direction of the unlocked place — and that the emergency slide arming lever had been moved to the ‘disarmed’ place,” DOJ officers stated. “The flight attendant reported this to the captain and flight crew after securing the door and emergency slide.”
One other flight attendant reported that they’d noticed Torres “close to the door and believed Torres had tampered with the door,” the DOJ stated.
“A flight attendant then confronted Torres about tampering with the door, to which he responded by asking if there have been cameras displaying that he had accomplished so,” officers continued. “The flight attendant then notified the captain that they believed Torres posed a menace to the plane and that the captain wanted to land the plane as quickly as attainable.”
Torres then bought out of his seat and approached a facet door the place two flight attendants had been standing within the aisle.
“Video taken by a passenger depicts Torres yelling at factors that he would ‘kill each man on this aircraft’ and ‘I’m taking up this aircraft.’ Torres then thrust in the direction of one of many flight attendants in a stabbing movement with a damaged metallic spoon, hitting the flight attendant on the neck space thrice,” the DOJ stated.
The flight crew, together with a number of passengers, tackled and restrained Torres. He was taken into custody upon the flight’s arrival to Boston.
Passengers reported that Torres had “requested a fellow passenger the place on the security card it confirmed the place the door deal with was situated previous to takeoff and that Torres was seen pacing in a galley earlier than attacking the flight attendant.”
He was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023.
