A passenger on a United Airlines flight from Houston to Newark has been charged with allegedly stripping off his shirt in front of a flight attendant before pinning her against the door and chasing her down the aisle in a violent and unprovoked outburst.
Kedus Yacob Damtew was arrested on Monday on suspicion of interfering with the duties of flight crew. If found guilty, Damtew faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment plus a fine of up to $250,000.
According to a criminal complaint filed in a New Jersey district court on Tuesday, prosecutors allege that Damtew started to act aggressively shortly before United Airlines flight UA2732 was due to land at Newark Liberty Airport on June 12, 2024.
Damtew went into the galley at the front of the Boeing 737MAX airplane and struck up a conversation with the flight attendant working there before he suddenly stripped off his shirt in front of her.
He then allegedly pushed his bare chest into the crew member’s chest and in doing so, pinned her against the exit door of the airplane and shouting epithets and threats of violence in her face.
With her face covered in saliva from where Damtew had been screaming at her, the flight attendant managed to escape and went to see help at the back of the plane.
Damtew gave chase, but not before punching an aircraft oven. Once he caught up with the victim, Damtew allegedly continued to shout threats and then threw a cup of water at her.
A flight attendant working in the rear cabin was so concerned about what was happening that they shouted for help over the plane’s PA system, alerting a third crew member and several passengers who came running to help.
The flight attendants and good Samaritans managed to get Damtew in flex cuffs, but he continued to resist during the final approach and landing in Newark. This meant that the flight attendants could not properly secure the cabin or galley and had to leave one of the emergency exits unattended.
For the month of June, 200 unruly passenger incidents were reported by US airlines to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Although still significantly higher than before the pandemic, the number of unruly passenger incidents has shown a dramatic fall from its peak in March 2021 when more than 700 incidents were reported to the FAA.
Along with a criminal conviction, the FAA also has the power to slap unruly passengers with civil penalties of up to $37,000 per violation. Many unruly passenger incidents result in several violations, meaning that the total civil penalty could be much higher.
In response to a dramatic rise in disruptive behavior during the pandemic, the FAA launched a zero-tolerance campaign that has resulted in an 80% drop in reported incidents, although the FAA warns that unruly passenger reports remain too high.
Since late 2021, the FAA has referred more than 300 of the most serious cases to the FBI for potential criminal prosecution. The most recent set of referrals took place in August when the FAA asked the FBI to investigate 43 more unruly passenger cases.
Im confused how he was not charged with frank assault? When and where you can treat a human being this way and have someone call it interference?