Man charged with assault after brandishing razor on flight

A Utah man was charged with carrying a weapon on an airplane and assault with a deadly weapon after he held a razor near the throat of the passenger sitting next to him, federal prosecutors said this week.

The encounter was the latest example of unruly behavior that law enforcement officials say has become more common in the skies as airline traffic has picked up after a major decline because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The man, Merrill Darrell Fackrell, 41, of Syracuse, Utah, was on a JetBlue flight from Kennedy International Airport in New York to Salt Lake City on Monday when he put his hand in front of the video screen of the woman sitting next to him and told her to pause her movie, prosecutors said.

The woman took off her headphones and realized that Fackrell was holding what appeared to be a knife — it was later identified as a wood-handled razor with a 1to 2-inch blade — inches from her throat, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah.

Fackrell, who was sitting in the window seat, then stood up and started yelling, “She's going to be OK” and “No one needs to worry,” according to a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Utah. He also told the woman's husband, who was sitting in the aisle seat, to “get out of there,” punctuating the demand with an expletive, charging documents state.

The woman's husband went to the front of the aircraft to find a flight attendant, and the woman “lunged” for the aisle to escape while Fackrell tried unsuccessfully to stop. A passenger who saw the encounter was able to persuade Fackrell to place the razor on the seat next to him, according to charging documents. The passenger then grabbed the razor before sitting next to Fackrell for the rest of the flight, according to the complaint.