A 33-year-old man from Massachusetts faces a life sentence after drama during a flight from Los Angeles to Boston.
He is accused of having tried to prevent crew members from doing their job with the help of a dangerous weapon, writes CBS and refer to the charge by the Massachusetts Attorney General.
It was last Sunday that the man was confronted by crew members when he fiddled with an emergency exit.
The crew members immediately reported to the captain that he had to land the plane as soon as possible because they considered the man a threat.
The man responded by stabbing a crew member three times in the throat with a broken metal spoon.
Other passengers intervened and, together with other crew members, he was held down. The man was taken into custody as soon as the plane managed to land at Boston airport.
The 33-year-old has explained that he pulled the end of the spoon in the toilet before trying to open the door to jump out of the plane.
He has explained that he knew he would die if he jumped out, and he has also said that he thought one of the crew members would kill him.
United airlines thanks the crew members and passengers who intervened, and says it has zero tolerance for any type of violence on its flights.
It ended well this time, but United airlines has a tragic history of similar incidents. On 11 September 2001, two of their planes were hijacked by Islamist terrorists.
United 175 crashed into the World Trade Center. It is believed that the hijackers entered the cockpit and attacked the pilots.
On the same day, terrorists attempted to hijack United 93, and it is believed that they attempted to crash the plane into the Capitol building in Washington. However, other passengers broke in after the terrorists had killed one of them, and the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
