A California man on a Frontier Airlines flight was arrested on Wednesday after attempting to strangle a flight attendant and threatening to kill everybody. The unruly passenger ultimately caused the flight to be diverted, according to officials.
Charles Angela Salva, 30, of Fremont, California, was a passenger on Flight 3581 departing from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana to San Francisco International Airport on Monday, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison for interfering with flight crew members.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Frontier Airlines confirmed the incident “involving a passenger who physically assaulted members of the flight crew and had to be restrained, forcing the flight to divert to Ontario, California.”
One passenger told law enforcement they noticed that Salva seemed “claustrophobic” and “like he wanted to get off the plane.”
Shortly after takeoff, flight attendants noticed the oxygen masks in one row in the middle of the aircraft were out of the overhead compartment and discovered that Salva had pulled down the masks and got his hand stuck in the process, the release said.