Man charged in plane door incident
A 34-year-old Burbank man who rushed toward the front of a Chicago-bound aircraft and attempted to open the door may face up to 40 years in prison, prosecutors announced today.
Reynel C. Alcaide was on Continental Flight 546 from Houston to Chicago when he got up out of his seat, rushed up the aisle, pinned a flight attendant against a wall and repeatedly tried to open the door mid-flight, according to the federal complaint.
Prosecutors said Alcaide “repeatedly attempted to unlatch, cycle, and open the door in mid flight,” about 20 minutes after takeoff after pushing aside the flight attendant who tried to stop him.
The flight was forced to make an emergency landing in at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis after passengers and flight attendants wrestled the man to the ground and handcuffed him.
Alcaide has been charged with one count of a crime involving an aircraft and a second count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Each offense carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison after a conviction, according to prosecutors.
The FBI, who questioned the man Sunday night along with the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Police, said the incident does not appear to be related to terrorism.
Officials said it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for the man to open the door during the flight because of cabin pressure.
Members of the Transportation Security Administration and local law enforcement met the plane on the runway and took Alcaide into custody around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
Passengers on the plane told ABC 7 the 34-year-old was in a restroom near the front of the plane for a long time before he tried to open the door. Houston resident Tony Harris, a 60-year-old Chicago native with a military and martial arts background, tackled Alcaide.
“I hear a scream from the stewardess, and I see her fly across the thing. So I go running and I see this guy with his hands on the door, and these two guys trying to hold him, and this guy was a bull,” Harris told ABC 7. “So what I did was jump on his back and put him in a choke.”