The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that the man accused of storming the cockpit of a Newark-to-New Orleans United Airlines flight while claiming to have a bomb is a twice-deported illegal alien from Honduras, according to a statement provided to Fox News.
Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, was arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after United Airlines Flight 2174 landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport late Monday, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin posted on X.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer for the twice-deported Honduran on Tuesday, the department said. Under President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, “criminal illegal aliens who try to HIJACK AIRPLANES are NOT welcome” in the United States, DHS continued:
Crew members persuaded the 34-year-old to move to the rear of the cabin, where he was detained, while the pilots stayed locked in the cockpit and officers coordinated getting passengers off the aircraft. Air traffic control audio captured a first responder describing the cabin as “empty except for the pilot and [co-]pilot who are locked in the cockpit,” the New York Post reported.
Forty-six passengers and six crew members were aboard the Boeing 737 MAX 9.
DHS said Gomez-Alberto first entered the country illegally through Texas in 2011 before being removed. A second illegal crossing, through New Mexico in 2014, ended in another removal. A third illegal entry in 2019, through the San Ysidro border crossing in California, ended with a Border Patrol arrest, and a judge ordered him released from ICE custody in January 2020 pending removal proceedings.
He had been living in New York, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies took him into custody without incident and booked him at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on counts of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing, FOX8 reported. DHS listed his charges as felony bomb threat, felony terroristic threat, and disorderly conduct. He is being held without bond.
The sheriff’s office confirmed he is wanted by ICE. The FBI said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana will determine whether he faces federal charges, WDSU reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration is opening its own investigation, the agency said.
United said the flight landed safely “following a disruptive incident involving a passenger onboard” and that law enforcement met the aircraft on arrival, according to the Associated Press. The jet had departed Newark around 9:30 p.m.
