On Thursday night, an Alaska Airlines aircraft from San Francisco to Chicago was forced to make an emergency diversion to Kansas City after a passenger allegedly fell asleep in one of the restrooms before making a murder threat against a flight attendant.
Alaska Airlines flight AS-456 departed San Francisco International Airport at around 11:21 pm on Thursday after a short delay but was forced to divert to Kansas City around two and a half hours into the flight.
Local law officials removed Chloe M. Dasilva, 32, from the Boeing 737MAX airplane and she has been taken in custody on one count of interfering with flight crew members.
Dasilva may receive up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if proven guilty.
An FBI agent who was on the scene claims that numerous passengers on the late-night aircraft to Chicago O’Hare overheard Dasilva threatening to kill a male flight attendant in an affidavit submitted to the U.S. District Court in Kansas City.
In police interviews, the flight attendants who were working the trip said that they noticed Dasilva’s “strange” behavior before the plane even took off from San Francisco, and that at one point, Dasilva even got up and asked when the plane was taking off.
As soon as the plane took off, Dasilva begged to transfer seats, prompting the crew to warn them to keep an eye on her. She was unable to switch seats because the plane was already full, so after a while she used the restroom at the back of the aircraft for a “long period of time.”
After hearing heavy banging coming from the restroom, flight attendants went to see how she was doing. As they unlocked and opened the door, they discovered Dasilva sleeping in the restroom.
The crew decided to leave Dasilva in the lavatory, but she eventually came out and banged on the overhead lockers before returning to her seat.
The flight attendants opted to maintain watch when one of the pilots asked to use the restroom because they were concerned about her behavior. At this time, Dasilva allegedly walked after a male flight attendant and threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave her alone.
Another passenger heard Dasilva yell at the top of her lungs: “I’m going to kill you unless you land the plane right now”, and another heard her say to the flight attendant: “You’re the devil”.
As Dasilva was being carried back to her seat, the pilot in charge gave the go-ahead for the flight attendants to restrain her with zip ties and she was taken back to her seat, where she remained calm but in a “creepy” way.
One of the passengers expressed their extreme distress about the occurrence and worry that Dasilva might be carrying a weapon. The Captain decided to divert the flight because he feared for the safety of the flight attendants and passengers.
After DaSilva was taken out of the flight took off again to Chicago, where it eventually landed over two hours later.
