On Saturday, a woman traveling from Frankfurt to Washington Dulles was arrested after causing a scene and attacking air marshals on United flight 933. She now faces eight years behind bars if convicted of her charges.
Initial concerns
TravelPulse reports that the woman was identified as Dana Ghazi Mustafa, a resident of North Carolina. Unfortunately, customers and crew members had to experience a series of frustrating and concerning events that involved the passenger.
Initially, United employees were alerted that a smoke detector in the Boeing 777’s lavatory had been activated. This prompted an investigation, which ended up with Mustafa being caught trying to smoke in the restroom. Therefore, she was escorted back to her seat without further incident… for the time being.
Later on, flight attendants noticed that Mustafa was crying. She soon said that she was flying home to see her family after someone close to her died in a drunk driving accident, which she revealed to be a lie later on.
Nonetheless, in a bid to help calm the situation down, staff moved her to a more comfortable part of the plane. However, the woman only became further agitated and started to punch an inflight entertainment screen before throwing a coin at the bulkhead in the cabin.
Dramatic disturbances
After this incident, she tried to enter the restroom once again, this time seen with a lighter in her hand. Attendants tried to stop the passenger from going in but she managed to enter. However, she could not close the door so two federal air marshals tried to intervene. She then became even more aggravated and kicked the marshals, which eventually led to her onboard arrest.
There was one more seating upgrade for Mustafa. This time a prized seat with extra amenities in the form of a pair of handcuffs and in the good company of the two air marshals. She didn’t take much of a liking to her new travel buddies and threatened to stab one of them. According to court documents, Mustafa also said that she would stab everyone on the plane then kill herself.
United’s stance
Simple Flying reached out to United for comment on the incident. A spokesperson for the Chicago-based carrier shared that there aren’t any known injuries that occurred on the flight. Additionally, the airline is cooperating with officials following the events that happened.
“The safety and security of our employees and customers is our top priority,” The spokesperson told Simple Flying.
“We are cooperating with law enforcement following an incident involving a passenger who exhibited disruptive behavior onboard United flight 933 from Frankfurt to Washington Dulles on February 22.”
This incident follows another worrying incident that happened on a United Washington Dulles flight last month. A man allegedly stormed towards the plane’s cockpit, attacked a flight attendant and injured six police offers on his way to Newark from the United States capital. Additionally, a disruptive drunk United passenger forced a diversion on the way to Tokyo earlier this month.
Thankfully, the situation during the weekend’s incident was able to be handled before it became even more violent.
What are your thoughts about what happened on this United flight? Let us know what you think of the events in the comment section.
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