A Frontier Airlines passenger has been sentenced to 30 months imprisonment after admitting to threatening to stab someone on a flight to Florida before charging at a flight attendant while brandishing a box cutter.
William Allen Liebisch, 43, of Cincinnati, managed to smuggle the box cutter past a TSA security checkpoint at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on November 12, 2022, before boarding Frontier flight F9-1761 to Tampa.
The TSA had actually spotted the box cutter during routine x-ray screening of Liebisch’s carry-on bags, but the officers returned the weapon to Liebisch because they mistakenly believed they had ‘rendered it inoperable’ by removing the blade.
What they didn’t realize, however, was that the box cutter had a spare blade built into the handle.
Once onboard, Liebisch inserted the spare blade and started to clean his nails with it before telling his seatmate that he intended to stab someone with it.
Flight attendants roped in two passengers to sit with Liebisch as the pilots made an emergency diversion to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, where law enforcement was waiting to meet the aircraft.
On arrival in Atlanta, police officers initially boarded the plane and spotted Liebisch standing at the back of the aircraft brandishing the box cutter. In an attempt not to antagonise Liebisch, the police officers stepped off the plane so they were out of view but ordered all the passengers to immediately deplane, leaving their bagge behind.
All the passengers quickly got off the plane apart from Liebisch and the two other customers who had been sitting with him. As the last of the other passengers stepped off the plane, Liebisch suddenly started to charge towards a flight attendant at the front of the plane with the box cutter in his hand.
One of the passengers who had been sitting with Liebisch managed to tackle him to the ground as the police officers rushed onboard to restrain Liebisch and take him into custody.
A police report claims Liebisch only stopped resisting then officers threatened him with a Taser.
“Liebisch’s conduct created panic among the flight crew and his fellow travelers,” commented U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan following the sentencing hearing on Thursday.
“His prosecution and sentence hopefully provide a message of deterrence to others.”
In the aftermath of the terrifying incident, The Department of Homeland Security opened an urgent investigation, with the TSA admitting that its agents had not followed standard operating procedures by returning the box cutter to Liebisch.
