Delta Air Lines flight 2809 from Minneapolis to San Francisco had to go around and attempt to land a second time due to low visibility in fog, and was delayed about 9 minutes, but was otherwise like any other flight – until it reached the gate.
A passenger onboard reports that 10 law enforcement officers, including Homeland Security Investigations officers, “stormed to the front” of the aircraft as soon as the Boeing 757 arrived and “grabbed/arrested” one of the pilots.
The remaining pilot suggested to those who asked that “he had no idea what just happened.” Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t given a heads up that this was happening because that would have also tipped his colleague in the cockpit with him.
Delta Pilot Watches His Colleague Get Removed From The Aircraft
Here are the officers leaving the aircraft.
A Delta spokesperson declined to comment, deferring to law enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to an inquiry.
This comes days after a Delta pilot was arrested in Amsterdam for failing a breathalyzer test prior to departure, although there are reports that test may have been in error.
Sad that so many here are upset with a pedophile being arrested. Perhaps they take a peek every now and then themselves.
Apparently had to do with a local Bay Area warrant on him for kiddy porn or similar.
Some information per the SF Chronicle:
Pilot apparently lives here, so the investigation was being conducted by a Bay Area law enforcement agency (CC Sheriff).
While I am horrified at how ICE is currently treating immigrants, the facts in this case point to what happened probably being the best of the available options. The surprise factor and the ability to contain the situation rather than have it occur in the terminal with more people and less control makes sense to me.
It appears there may have been sex with a child 10 or younger, so I am unable to summon up any compassion for this pilot at this time.
@makfan “While I am horrified at how ICE is currently treating immigrants” – er, have you looked at the records of Biden’s illegal alien criminals ICE is targeting?
We can always move them to your neighborhood. Why don’t you open your doors to them?
@1990 Anyone that either makes a joke about child SA (particularly without making sure others know it’s a joke) or suggests they are to be pitied really needs to rethink their moral compass.
I would law enforcement to 100% guarantee this guy would be taken into custody without escape and it’s hard to escape an airplane cockpit.
Wood chipper for all pedophiles! Compassion only for the children abused!
Oh My, happened on Delta the so proclaimed/anointed Golden Goose of Aviation. WTF are they kidding……same Airline that had a Young Gay FA in uniform servicing a well known Gay Porn Star in the bathroom on a cross country flight with his ID around his neck. Shit happens anywhere within ANY Company so the Delta Fanboys need to put down their Southern Bibles and Christian diatribes of BS because they are no better than anyone else. Feds obviously were watching this Perp and they showed no mercy in addressing the situation.
Mystery solved – he’s a pedo
Good work to take him down though doubt it required that kind of manpower esp in an enclosed space.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/business/delta-pilot-arrested-san-francisco-federal-agents.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Apparently he was a flight risk
@George Romey — Bud, we agree. Rest assured, I am all about enforcement AND due process. Let’s be clear here, @Erect made those comments, not you or I. That guy sure likes to troll here.
Reece
You and a few others are the only ones that think that Delta or any company of 100k employees wouldn’t have serious and deviant criminals in its midst. You clearly do it so you can throw dirt while failing to realize the crap in your own life. And it is there whether you admit or not
Guy needs justice. And removal from society.
Those who are hyper focused on the way the arrest was done doesn’t undermine the universal disgust at what he is charged with doing to a young minor
I have to admit you are consistent, tim.
Long lines at a Delta SkyClub? — you spend all day defending delta and yelling at other commenters
Delta Ops Meltdown? — You spend all day defending delta and yelling at other commenters
Delta Pilot arrested for kiddie porn? You spend all day defending Delta and yelling at other commenters, not to mention attacking the manner in which law enforcement arrested the pilot.
Perhaps it’s time to back away from the keyboard?
max,
you are the height of hypocrisy – to absolutely no one’s surprise.
when people don’t have the intelligence -that would be you – to know the difference between a crime against a child and lines at SkyClubs and think they are the same, then it all becomes nothing but an excuse to lash out at someone.
reece’s comment was beyond unhinged. There isn’t a soul anywhere and esp. not me that has defended what this pilot was accused of doing. He gets his day in court but the chances are pretty high they have ample evidence.
Companies don’t and never will have full responsibility for the conduct of their employees esp. off duty.
DL doesn’t want him around. Society doesn’t want him around.
But that is also true of the brainless comments that come from you and reece.
we can and do lockup child predators. Sadly we have to put up with people like you
Is this now your 15th comment defending delta and attacking others on an article about a Delta pilot getting arrested kiddie porn? Thanks for making my point.
Walk away from the keyboard, tim. Get some perspective.
we can’t possibly count the number of times you have posted something that is so completely a789 backwards from what was said – and yet you think **I** am the one that needs to walk away.
You and your uneducated ilk wouldn’t know what “he who he is without sin can cast the first stone”
It certainly doesn’t mean someone is excused for what they did and certainly doesn’t mean that anyone else can or should take ownership for someone’s actions – INCLUDING THEIR EMPLOYER.
You and a few of your low IQ ilk are so hellbent on trying to defame me and Delta that you can’t understand that the human heart is dark and sometimes people such as this pilot, if he is convicted, prove us how dark
But in your tiny little mind, cases like this are reduced to a platform for trashing someone else because you are incapable of realizing how depraved you are.
YOU step back from the keyboard to focus on the incredible human loss and damage that has been caused instead of just thinking this is yet another opportunity to weaponize another discussion.
You need a therapist. And a good one. I know exactly what “let he who is without….”. means. I’m not sure you do because it’s certainly not something a normal person writes about a kiddie porn arrest in the pilot’s defense.
But it surprises no one that a guy that spends all day behind a keyboard and is in love with a public company wouldn’t have the common decency to just walk away on this topic but instead spent most of the day between various websites yelling at others and defending Delta under various usernames.
For an idiot, you sure do love to rate others’ IQ 😉
Get some sleep. It’s been a long day of looking like a loser for you.
and yet you, hypocritically keep arguing – because this is ALL just an attempt by your depraved mind to prove someone else wrong
and, no, you don’t have a clue what “let he who is without sin (who can’t even type the word)”
It means not one of us is in a position to condemn someone else.
absolutely nowhere have I given approval for what he did or stated that he shouldn’t face the full brunt of the law which he broke – not just laws of the US and whatever jurisdictions under it – but more importantly the moral law which is embedded deeply in every one of us.
The only idiot is someone like you and your ilk that think that this, of ALL topics, is one that should become a platform for trying to prove someone wrong.
YOU are depraved and as vile as they come. The complete sadness is that you have seared your mind to prevent you from being faced with the reality of who you are.
don’t just walk away, Max.
Run
Please don’t stop fellas. I feel your passion. Thank you both.
… I could reply but your deranged one says it all
Thanks
@Tim Dunn — Looks like @MaxPower surrendered. Congrats! Keep climbing! 100 more years!
1990.
this is serious stuff.
Not a game.
Someone majorly screwed up his own life and did unimaginable harm to a little girl.
It is pathetically sad.
and yet Max and a few mental midgets think it is an occasion to try to smack someone else down.
He and anyone else is free to mock me about SkyClubs or anything else about the business of aviation but to even insinuate that I defend this guy is such a gross misreading of what was said that the only way that can be done is to be so incredibly deranged to not even be able to think clearly.
“he who is without sin….” is one of the foundational sentences in world literature. You don’t have to be a Christian to recognize the basic message about it or how profound it was when it was spoken, but sadly, some people are clueless.
I’m with you on this, Tim. And this incident really is a shame. Hopefully there will be accountability and justice for victims soon.