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A Massachusetts man tried to open an airliner’s emergency door on a cross-country flight from Los Angeles to Boston and then tried to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon, federal prosecutors alleged Monday.
Francisco Severo Torres, 33, of Leominster, was tackled and restrained with the aid of passengers and arrested Sunday at Boston Logan International Airport when United Airlines Flight 2609 landed, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement.
He was charged with interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon, the statement added.
The man was detained at an initial appearance in federal court on Monday and awaits a hearing scheduled for Thursday. An email seeking comment was left with his federal public defender.
The plane was about 45 minutes from arrival in Boston when the crew received an alarm that a side door on the aircraft was disarmed, prosecutors said.
A flight attendant noticed that the door’s locking handle had been moved out of the fully locked position about a quarter of the way toward the unlocked position and that the emergency slide arming lever had been moved to the disarmed position, authorities said.
