A Honduran man accused of claiming to have a bomb and trying to break into the cockpit of a United Airlines flight had been deported from the United States twice, the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News.
Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, began “acting irrationally” around 11:20 p.m. Monday aboard United Flight 2174 from Newark and told crew members he had a bomb on board, according to Jefferson Parish deputies. He was arrested after the plane landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
United confirmed a “disruptive incident involving a passenger onboard” and said law enforcement met the Boeing 737 MAX 9, which carried 46 passengers and six crew members and landed safely, Fox News reported.
Radio traffic obtained by WWL-TV captured the security response as the plane was routed to a secure area. “Be advised, one passenger said he changed into all black before he started trying to reach the cockpit,” one transmission said.
“Be advised, pilots are going to stay in the cockpit with the door locked,” another said. Responders discussed a SWAT team, a bomb squad, negotiators and three buses to carry passengers away from the jet, and one noted, “He doesn’t speak English neither.”
“We have him at the back door. The back door has been breached by him,” a responder said shortly before he was taken into custody at 12:13 a.m. No bombs were found.
Border Patrol caught Gomez-Alberto after he crossed illegally near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011 and again near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014, and he was removed after both encounters, according to DHS. Agents arrested him a third time in 2019 after an attempted illegal entry near San Ysidro, California, and ICE released him in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings.
ICE lodged a detainer with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, the Washington Examiner reported.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are NOT welcome in the United States,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News.
The sheriff’s office booked Gomez-Alberto on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing, WVUE reported. DHS separately listed bomb threat, terroristic threat and disorderly conduct offenses, according to Fox News.
His bond must be set locally before he faces any possible federal charges, and he had been living in New York, the sheriff’s office told WWL-TV.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, cockpit doors on U.S. airliners have been reinforced and kept locked during flight, and pilots are trained not to open them during a disturbance.
The charges are allegations, and Gomez-Alberto has not been convicted of any crime in the case.
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