On Monday night’s United Airlines flight 2129 redeye from San Diego to Washington Dulles a prisoner was being escorted on the aircraft. As one passenger from the flight relays,
2 bailiffs/guards escorted someone during pre-board, then even before the pre-board ends, a lot of passengers walked out of the gate and the guards dragged the detained individual out with handcuffs, and the dude was still resisting.
The flight actually pushed back 3 minutes early, and arrive into Dulles 29 minutes early just before 5 a.m. This customer heard a pilot discussing the incident with other passengers at the end of the flight, while taking the ‘mobile lounge’ from the United concourse out to the main terminal at Dulles. Apparently the individual was “wanted internationally” and “tried to escape in [San Diego] during boarding.”
Law enforcement had gotten on the plane with the prisoner during pre-boarding, just before 1K elite members were called to board. Everyone that had just boarded – pre-boarders and a few 1Ks – “walked out from the [jet]bridge, to make space for them to escort [the prisoner] out.”
An airport seems like the worst place possible to try to escape law enforcement. All of the flights to various places would seem like the best! But perhaps nowhere in the country are there as many (1) cameras and (2) law enforcement agencies in the same place. You’re not going to get far.
I’ve never seen a prisoner transport gone bad in all my own flying. However, in case you ever find yourself in this situation, a better strategy might be the Midnight Run approach where Charles Grodin pretends to be desperately afraid to fly and creates enough of a commotion that Robert DeNiro can’t take him in by air. At least it worked in the film!
What is going on with redeyes on United from California to the DC area? Anyone else recall that recent ‘punching’ incident on UA2247 from SFO-IAD on October 28, 2024? Now this one is SAN-IAD. Unlike UA2247, the reporting on UA2129 does not identify the residency of this perpetrator, so I guess it was not a ‘Florida man’ this time. @TexasTJ and @Retired Gambler may find this interesting.
As a 1K, I’m ticked off that the prisoner was allowed to board before me. He should have been in Group 6.
“Internationally-wanted” makes it sound like they transported the detainee to Dulles to try to deport him out of the country from Dulles and back to a country where the detainee is a citizen and/or is wanted for a criminal court proceeding or to serve a sentence behind bars. Under such circumstances, some people will attempt different things to try to avoid removal from the country and being delivered to a country which they would rather avoid under the circumstances.
Just wait until the “mass deportation” show gets into swing. Desperate people will try various things, and that will range from the absolutely brilliant to the absolutely stupid. And it will play out at airports too.
Passengers don’t receive a discount to deal with the inconvenience and danger of sitting near a prisoner. Some inmates would kill to escape custody. It’s not fair to expose the other passengers to that risk.
AA removes screens. UA hosts live entertainment.
@GUWonder: If it happens at anywhere near the scale Trump has threatened, using commercial flights simply won’t work. They’ll have to fill charter flights (or busses?).