Man Pleads Guilty to Stabbing Random Passenger With Homemade Shank On Alaska Airlines Flight to Las Vegas

A man who launched a vicious and unprovoked attack on a random passenger on an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Las Vegas, using a homemade shank made out of three pens bound together with hair bands, has pleaded guilty to repeatedly stabbing his innocent seatmate.

Julio Alvarez Lopez, who is a citizen of Mexico but was granted legal permanent resident status in the United States in 2018, now faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in a federal prison after reaching a plea deal to one count of assault using a deadly weapon.

The horrific incident occurred aboard Alaska Airlines flight AS-604 as the plane was making its initial descent to land at Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport on the morning of January 24, 2024.

Witnesses had described Lopez as being “fidgety” for the duration of the two-hour flight, constantly getting up from his seat to look through his backpack in the overhead bin, and putting on, then removing his gloves.

With around 30 minutes left of the flight, Lopez once again got up from his seat and made his way to the bathroom. He locked himself in the bathroom for some time, and when he exited, he made a beeline for the male victim, launching an unprovoked attack on the random passenger.

Lopez allegedly punched and hit the victim multiple times, using three pens bound together as a homemade shank to stab the victim. Witnesses recalled the horror of seeing “blood everywhere” as the victim’s wife begged Lopez to stop attacking her husband.

After attacking the victim, Lopez then started to make his way towards the front of the plane. An off-duty law enforcement officer intervened, ordering Lopez to sit down, as flight attendants rushed to get flexi-cuffs and restrain Lopez.

The victim sustained a number of puncture wounds to his face, which required stitches, but thankfully, he wasn’t seriously injured. Lopez had initially told investigators that he had wanted to kill the victim.

Lopez said he feared the victim was a member of the ‘cartel’ or ‘mafia’ that had been chasing him for several months. He said that he planned to kill the victim by stabbing him through the eye and into his brain using the taped-up pens.

He had pleaded not guilty to assault with a deadly weapon but changed his plea last week. Lopez is due to be sentenced on September 22, 2026.

Ahead of a potential trial, Lopez had been held in custody, including a stint in a mental health hospital where he underwent an evaluation to determine whether he was even fit to stand trial.