NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A passenger who sprinted at a plane’s cockpit during a flight, pounding on the door before attacking a flight attendant and fighting with officers at the Newark airport, has been charged with aggravated assault and other crimes, according to media reports.
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Matthew Dingley, 28, of New York, was arrested Thursday for injuring the flight attendant and six officers, including one who was hospitalized with four broken ribs.
A passenger on the United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Newark told NBC that it started when Dingley sprinted at the cockpit and began to pound on the door. The passenger, Mike Egbert, said Dingley then attacked a flight attendant who tried to intervene. Other passengers on the plane stepped in to help the attendant and brought the situation under control, Egbert said.
The man charged at officers when the plane landed in Newark, sending them falling down the boarding stairs leading up to the plane, Port Authority spokesman Scott Ladd told NJ.com.
Officers were eventually able to restrain Dingley. The injured officers and the flight attendant were taken to a hospital.
“He picks up a police officer, throws the police officer,” Egbert told NBC. “If he did actually get into that cockpit lord knows what would have happened.”
Dingley was charged with aggravated assault, criminal trespassing, resisting arrest and interfering with transportation. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney, according to the media reports.
He was being held in the Essex County Correctional Facility.
When the passengers restrained that psycho, they should have tied his hands behind his back (with belts if necessary), as was done to the shoe bomber, Richard Reed, in 2001. I saw the booking photo of that psycho, and there wasn’t a mark on his face. It is too bad that the Port Authority cops didn’t beat the —- out of him, for endangering the passengers, and for beating the flight attendant, who was no match for him. The airlines have a no fly list for terrorists, but don’t have one for convicted felons, as this lunatic was.
US Rep. Ilhan Omar blames Israel for the incident, asks the public to show tolerance for the aggravated passenger who clearly is the victim here and calls for more emulating Iran to be more honest.
What is it about United Airlines that brings out the best in people?
Regardless, these Trump supporters have become completely unhinged.