A California man accused of assaulting crew members and threatening to kill everyone aboard a Frontier Airlines flight was arrested Wednesday on federal charges, prosecutors announced.
Charles Angel Salva, 30, of Fremont, Calif., faces federal charges of interference with flight crew members and attendants, prosecutors said on Thursday. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The disruption happened on Monday evening shortly after Frontier Airlines Flight 3581 had taken off from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., bound for San Francisco International Airport and resulted in an emergency landing at Ontario International Airport, about 30 miles northeast of Santa Ana.
The plane had not yet reached 10,000 feet when flight attendants noticed the that oxygen masks above seats in Row 18 had deployed, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the criminal complaint.
Flight crew members who went to assess the situation found Mr. Salva with his hand in the overhead compartment.
A passenger siting in Row 19 told investigators that Mr. Salva had appeared claustrophobic and had seemed to want to get off the flight before he pulled down the oxygen mask from the overhead compartment and got his hand stuck in the process, the affidavit said. The passenger helped Mr. Salva get his hand unstuck.
One flight attendant who responded to the situation described Mr. Salva as being sweaty and out of breath and reported that he was yelling obscenities and saying, “We are all going to hell,” and “This plane is going down,” according to the affidavit.
The flight attendant tried to restrain Mr. Salva as he tried to “violently grab” at other passengers, it says. Mr. Salva then ran to the back of the plane, where he tried to choke the flight attendant using the lanyard around the attendant’s neck, the affidavit says.
The flight attendant was able to break free of Mr. Salva’s grasp, but the scuffle left two red marks on the attendant’s neck, the affidavit said.
Mr. Salva also pushed a second flight attendant and threatened to kill everybody on the plane, according to the affidavit.
Several passengers subdued Mr. Salva while the second flight attendant left to grab two sets of flex cuffs and inform the captain of the situation.
When the flight attendant returned, Mr. Salva was “strong and in a violent uncontrollable rage,” the affidavit said.
He kicked the flight attendant in the leg six times as passengers tried to restrain him. An Ontario police officer later reported seeing that flight attendant’s calf swollen and bruised, the affidavit said.
The pilot decided to divert the flight to Ontario instead of continuing to San Francisco because the flight attendants did not feel safe trying to get Mr. Salva back into his seat, according to the affidavit.
Mr. Salva had been returning home from a weekend trip to Southern California with his 3-year-old daughter that included a visit to Disneyland, a relative who was also on the flight told investigators.
The day before the incident, on Sunday, Mr. Salva dropped his daughter off with family members and disappeared for the rest of the day, relatives told investigators, according to the affidavit.
His family later got a call from the Anaheim Police Department, saying that Mr. Salva had been found at “a liquor store covered in sewage,” the affidavit said.
After the in-flight incident, Mr. Salva told investigators that he was upset that his plan to kill everyone on the plane had not worked and claimed that he had molested his child and lost custody rights, according to the affidavit.
“Salva said that, during the flight, he thought everyone was trying to get him to admit his crimes, so he tried to pull the emergency flight button so the plane would crash,” the affidavit states.
“Salva said that he assaulted the flight attendants because he did not want anyone to know he was a pedophile,” the affidavit later continued. “Salva said that he heard voices saying words that triggered thoughts of him being a pedophile.”
A relative sitting near Mr. Salva on the plane told investigators that Mr. Salva had yelled during the flight about raping several people.
The relative said Mr. Salva’s statements were not true and told investigators the relative did not know what caused the outburst, according to the affidavit.
The same relative also told investigators that Mr. Salva “suffers from severe depression, is a pathological liar, and has attempted to commit suicide in the past,” the affidavit said.
A federal judge ordered that Mr. Salva be held without bond, prosecutors said. He is set to be arraigned on Oct. 1.
A lawyer for Mr. Salva could not immediately be reached.
The post California Man Assaulted Frontier Flight Attendants, Prosecutors Say appeared first on New York Times.
