A former airline pilot who is accused of threatening to shoot a Delta Air Lines Captain ‘multiple times’ because he didn’t want to divert the plane to help a passenger suffering a medical emergency will make his first appearance in federal court on Thursday.
Jonathan J. Dunn, 42, of Rapid City, North Dakota, was indicted by a Utah Grand Jury back in November 2023, but he could not be brought before a court until now because he was deployed as an Air Force Reserve Officer on active duty in Germany at the time of his indictment.
The former Delta Air Lines First Officer was terminated by the carrier following the alleged incident onboard the August 22, 2022, flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City, but he continued his career in the military while the prosecutors mounted a criminal case against him.
Court documents allege that during the flight, Dunn objected to a contingency plan to divert the plane after a passenger started to suffer a medical emergency and accused the Captain of “going crazy”.
Sitting next to the Captain in the cockpit, Dunn “described in substantial detail how he would shoot the Captain multiple times” and that he would “shoot all the rounds he possessed” because he disagreed with the senior pilot’s assessment that they should divert to Grand Junction if the passenger’s condition worsened.
Dunn was in possession of a gun at the time he made the threat. He was authorized to carry a firearm on the flight deck as part of a post-9/11 security program known as the Federal Flight Deck Officer scheme. Dunn’s authorization has now been revoked.
According to the TSA, pilots who take part in the program are subject to extensive background checks and psychological screening and have to undergo rigorous training before being authorized to carry a firearm on the flight deck.
During the pandemic, Dunn rejected a military vaccine mandate, arguing it was against his religious beliefs because the way the government had presented the need to have the vaccine had taken on a “sacramental quality”.
The Supreme Court dismissed Dunn’s legal challenge against the vaccine mandate, although the ruling was issued without comment.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General is investigating the case against Dunn, while the prosecution is being led by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah.
…and he was treated ‘special’? He should have been dishonorable discharged from the Air Force and jailed immediately.
Don’t think there’s a Rapid City, North Dakota, you might have got your Dakotas mixed up.