A federal Grand Duty has indicted a 30-year-old woman with interference with flight attendants after she allegedly tried to repeatedly open the emergency exit of a Southwest Airlines airplane, which was midair and flying at an altitude of 32,000 feet at the time.
If found guilty, Jendaya Kashar Brennan from Ohio faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison plus a fine of up to $250,000 following her terrifying and prolonged meltdown on Southwest flight WN-3239 from Nashville to Phoenix on the evening of May 22.
Court documents filed by FBI investigators in an Oklahoma district court allege Brennan assaulted several flight attendants and passengers, including two retired correctional officers, who waded into the melee as the crew struggled to restrain her with hand and leg cuffs.
After an uneventful departure from Nashville Airport at around 7:50 pm, witnesses described how Brennan went to the back of the plane and told the flight attendants in the rear galley area that not only did she want to get off the plane but that she was going to open the emergency exit door midflight in order to do so.
One of the flight attendants physically stood in front of the exit while ordering Brennan to return to her seat and stop frightening the other passengers.
The repeated requests from the flight attendants were, however, allegedly ignored by Brennan, who tried to get past the flight attendant in her desperate attempt to pull the door handle open while screaming in both English and Spanish.
With Brennan’s behavior becoming increasingly violent and dangerous, four flight attendants and two retired correctional officers who happened to be passengers on the plane attempted to tackle Brennan to the ground.
As they tried to apply wrist restraints to Brennan, she managed to kick several flight attendants, spit on them, and then grab the neck lanyard of another flight attendant in an attempt to pull her to the ground.
Even after the wrist restraints were applied, Brennan continued to resist and even managed to break out of one set of restraints.
A flight attendant eventually managed to phone the cockpit, and after hearing the commotion over the phone, the pilots decided to make an immediate emergency diversion to Oklahoma, where local law enforcement was waiting.
After being removed from the plane, Brennan was read her Miranda Rights, and at this point, she allegedly admitted to kicking and spitting on the flight attendants because they were preventing her from opening the airplane emergency exit door.
Brennan remains held in federal detention pending further court proceedings. The case is listed as United States of America v. Brennan (5:2025cr00206).
Matt’s take – Was a delay partly responsible?
I’ve covered midair meltdowns for many years now, and I’ve been noticing a worrying trend: Unruly passenger events often occur on delayed flights.
Southwest Flight 3239 had a relatively short departure time of one hour, but that’s still enough time for someone to get intoxicated in an airport bar or even score an illegal hit, as had happened in several recent unruly passenger incidents.
There’s no suggestion that any of these were the cause of Brennan’s alleged disruptive behavior, but you have to wonder whether a flight delay is enough to become a trigger point for some passengers.
Hey, at least she gave the F/A’s a little warning of what she was going to do ! Hopefully they don’t mess around in Oklahoma & throw the book at her, but I doubt it. So these incidents continue.