The Department of Justice announced Thursday that a California man could face federal charges for choking and assaulting a flight attendant while on board a flight to San Francisco this week, forcing the airport to divert the flight to another airport.
Charles Angel Salva, 30, of Fremont, was charged with interfering with flight crew and flight attendants when he appeared in federal court on Thursday.
According to the federal lawsuit, Salva was on Frontier Airlines Flight 3581 on Monday, departing from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana and heading to San Francisco International Airport.
Shortly after takeoff, while the plane was climbing below 10,000 feet, a flight attendant noticed that one of the oxygen masks in the center row of the aircraft had become detached from the overhead bin.
Video shows Delta Airlines plane's tail sheared off after crashing during takeoff at Atlanta airport
A Frontier Airlines Airbus A319-111 approaches the runway at Los Angeles International Airport. (iStock)
Authorities said they checked and found Salva with his hands in the overhead bin, and a passenger told investigators he appeared to be claustrophobic and wanted to get off the plane.
Passengers said Salva tried to pull an oxygen mask from an overhead bin but got his hand caught in it. He then began yelling obscenities, saying “we're all going to hell” and “the plane is going to crash,” according to court documents.
Authorities said Salva tried to grab the passenger but was stopped by a flight attendant, then he ran to the back of the plane, grabbed a strap that was around the flight attendant's neck and tried to choke her, saying, “I'm going to strangle that bitch.”
Federal prosecutors said the man “forcefully” pushed another flight attendant away and threatened to kill everyone.
Passengers tried to restrain Mr Salva after he kicked a second flight attendant in the leg. The plane landed at Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California, where authorities boarded the plane and found passengers holding Mr Salva down.
This image shows the arrivals area at Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Salva was eventually placed on a stretcher by responding police, restrained in soft handcuffs and taken to a local hospital, while the flight attendant who was allegedly kicked by Salva was taken to hospital for treatment.
“We offer our utmost gratitude to the professionalism of our flight crew and the other passengers who assisted during the accident, as well as to local and federal law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California who worked tirelessly to ensure justice was achieved,” Frontier Airlines said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
A passenger told investigators she was on a flight returning to San Francisco with Salva and her 3-year-old daughter after a weekend at Disneyland. Salva disappeared Sunday, leaving her daughter with an unnamed passenger and her family, court documents state.
The passenger said they then received a call from the Anaheim Police Department saying Salva had been found covered in sewage at a liquor store.
During police questioning, Salva allegedly told police “I'm a child molester” and claimed he had sexually abused his three-year-old daughter multiple times before losing custody of her.
A Frontier Airlines plane lands at Miami International Airport. (Marco Bello/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/File)
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The suspect allegedly admitted to taking ecstasy before boarding the plane and also said he tried to press the emergency flight button to crash the plane because he thought everyone was trying to get him to admit his guilt, authorities said.
He reportedly told police that he assaulted the flight attendant because he didn't want anyone to know he was a pedophile and because he had heard a voice saying words that led him to think he was a pedophile.
Salva faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
