A 44-year-old Florida man allegedly punched a “nonverbal” deaf passenger while he was sleeping on Monday’s flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles.
The FBI claims the suspect, identified as Everett Chad Nelson, returned from the bathroom and was returning to his seat when he suddenly and violently attacked the sleeping victim, ABC 7 News reported. The alleged victim was in a random row to which Nelson was not assigned.
Nelson “repeatedly punched her in the face and head until she bled,” the criminal complaint states, according to the New York Post. reported. He allegedly did so “without notice.”
Passenger Sandhya Gupta told ABC 7 that she awoke to the alleged attack and witnessed it. “The next thing I knew, I heard a blood-curdling scream,” she told the outlet. (Related: ‘It was chaos’: Severe turbulence leaves 14 injured, corridors in disarray)
Crazy pilot violently beats sleeping passenger on board United flight, leaving him bloody https://t.co/Bo07NYCbtd pic.twitter.com/noGiE2K30G
— New York Post (@nypost) October 31, 2024
“He was just very violent and very aggressive, punching the guy who was in the window seat in front of me, and it was vicious. This was not like a bar room. , I’m going to throw a few punches, I mean this was vicious,” Gupta told ABC 7.
Good Samaritans intervened in the incident, she said. “Basically, it was like wrapping this guy up like a hug, and the assailant was just, and that was the weirdest thing, he was just going limp. This doctor was like, “stop the bleeding.” “It looked like he was trying to break into the room, and his face was all messed up. It was terrible. There was blood splattered all over the window,” an eyewitness told the magazine.
Mr. Gupta said that when he tried to communicate with the victim, he discovered that the victim was “unspoken” and hard of hearing. They resolved the issue by having him send a phone message to a United Airlines flight attendant, an eyewitness told the outlet. “He also kept texting me saying, ‘I’m so scared,’ like it was terrible,” she added.
The flight attendant wrote a letter to the victim stating that the suspect had previously claimed to have attacked the victim on the street, Mr. Gupta said. The victim stated that he had no interaction with the suspect prior to the attack.
Law enforcement took Nelson into custody after the plane arrived in Dulles, the newspaper said. Authorities charged him with assault by beating, assault and wounding within the U.S.-controlled Special Aircraft Jurisdiction, the New York Post reported. If convicted, the man could be sentenced to up to a year in prison.
The victim is in stable condition, but has suffered physical and mental damage from the alleged attack, ABC 7 reported.
“Thanks to the quick actions of our crew and passengers, a passenger was detained on Monday’s flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles after becoming physically aggressive towards another passenger. The plane was safely transported. He landed and was met by emergency personnel and local law enforcement,” United Airlines said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released the following preliminary statement to the Daily Caller: “United Airlines Flight 2247 was operated by United Airlines Flight 2247 at 1:40 p.m. local time on Monday, October 28, after flight attendants reported a passenger disturbance. The plane landed safely at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. boeing 737-900 We departed from San Francisco International Airport. The FAA plans to investigate. Please contact your airline and local government for details. ”
“Airlines have reported more than 1,700 incidents of passenger misconduct so far in 2024. The FAA pursues enforcement actions against passengers who assault, threaten, intimidate, or obstruct flight crew members and may propose civil penalties of up to $37,000 for each violation.” he added. The agency manages statistics on “passengers with bad manners.” Website.
