Two F-16 jets were sent to escort a San Antonio-to- Los Angeles Delta flight that was routed to Tucson, Arizona amid reports of an unruly passenger who the airline said presented “security concerns.”
Delta Flight 5720 — which departed at 3:36 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 4:50 p.m. — was diverted after the crew decided to stop in Arizona over concerns about the passenger’s behavior, an airline official told CBS2.
“The flight was met by local law enforcement” upon landing, the official said.
Passenger Ryan Healy chronicled the incident in a series of tweets, in which he said that the passenger who caused the flight’s diversion looked “to be having some sort of breakdown,” and made verbal threats to the other passengers and crew members.
Healy tweeted shots of the fighter jets and a video of the passenger in question being summoned off the aircraft by authorities.
The plane was thoroughly inspected and the other passengers were taken to a terminal to be re-screened, according to tweets from Tucson International Airport’s account.
There were about 80 passengers on the flight, an airline official told KVOA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Tucson.
Matthew P. Reinsmoen of the FBI’s Phoenix Division told City News Service it was handling the ongoing investigation, and that the incident presented “no threat to public safety.”
—City News Service