Attendants defend cockpit
‘Unruly passenger’ on JetBlue flight out of Hub allegedly said ‘Allah’ during clash
Hero flight attendants fought off an enraged passenger who attempted to storm the cockpit of a JetBlue flight out of Boston this week — at one point being heard saying “Allah” — in a brutal clash that has once again raised questions about airline safety.
That passenger on JetBlue Flight 261 heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday night “had to be physically restrained by flight crew members … during the passenger’s attempt to gain access to the flight deck,” an FBI agent states in his affidavit.
The suspect, Khalil El Dahr, “became angry” after a phone call he tried to make was unsuccessful, the affidavit states.
Soon after, he “rushed toward the flight deck yelling to be shot,” the FBI agent writes. “Six or seven” flight crew members then took him on until they could subdue him.
At “one point during the incident, they were able to understand El Dahr said ‘Allah’ in a raised tone,” the agent reports.
El Dahr faces felony charges of interfering with a flight crew, Special Agent William Lopez of the FBI’s San Juan Division said in the affidavit.
Retired FAA special agent Brian Sullivan, who warned of a possible terrorist attack in the run-up to the 9/11 hijackings out of Logan International Airport in Boston, said Friday this is a worrisome confrontation.
“There’s been a lot of air rage incidents of late. The frequency of these can mask attempts to test the system,” Sullivan told the Herald. “Sometimes those who test the system can ask to be shot in an attempt to see if they can draw out a Federal Air Marshal.”
He added the “last line of defense is passengers and crew” and that’s exactly what transpired more than an hour out of San Juan that night.
“They didn’t just ‘see something, say something,’ in this instance they did something,” Sullivan said.
The FBI’s report tells a harrowing story of flight attendants who were punched and kicked in the chest and grabbed by the tie to the point of nearly blacking out. That agent, the affidavit states, is assigned to the bureau’s counter-terrorism squad.
Once a flight crew officer “opened the cockpit door,” the agent writes, El Dahr noticed that and “grabbed the FA (flight attendant) by their collar and tie with one hand while using his other hand to grab the overhead compartment to gain leverage to kick.”
The flight attendant was “kicked in the chest” and the suspect was also squeezing the other attendant’s tie so tightly the FBI agent wrote, “it prevented the JetBlue FA from breathing.”
The flight attendants teamed up using the tie, seat belts and a pair of “flex cuffs” an off-duty flight attendant offered up to restrain El Dahr, records state. But, the agent adds, he broke the cuffs and freed himself, forcing the crew members to double-up their efforts.
“A second pair was fastened along with 4 seat belt extenders to secure” him in a seat in the back row, the affidavit adds.
Sullivan questioned why the flight deck officer exposed the open cockpit.
“Why did he jeopardize the cockpit by opening the cockpit door?” Sullivan said. “By coming out, he endangered the cockpit.”
He added this “clearly demonstrates the need for the secondary cockpit barrier as advocated by the Airline Pilots Association.”
Reports of unruly passengers on U.S. airlines have taken off this year — spiking by 500% thanks largely to passengers who refused to wear masks on flights during the pandemic, the New York Post reports, quoting an FAA study.