A United Airlines flight changed directions to Wisconsin’s Dane County Regional Airport after a passenger tried to breach the cockpit.
After the crew reported the passenger disturbance, United Airlines Flight 2005 diverted to the airport 80 miles west of Milwaukee and landed there at around 9:10 p.m. Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The flight originally took off from Chicago O’Hare International Airport at around 8:30 p.m. for Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, according to FlightAware.
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office told Madison’s WMTV that the passenger trying to breach the cockpit was a 75-year-old man “suffering a mental health crisis.”
The man, unnamed by authorities, was restrained by law enforcement personnel without any of the other 146 passengers or six crew members on board getting hurt, Dane County Regional Airport officials said, according to Milwaukee’s WITI.
“Don’t think they were able to cuff him but were able to get control of him after multiple attempts to try to breach the cockpit,” a crew member explained to air traffic controllers on the ground in audio obtained by WISN, another Milwaukee station.
Though he was arrested once the plane landed, the passenger is not going to face charges for the disturbance, the sheriff’s office told WMTV. His family is traveling to Wisconsin from Minnesota to reunite with him.
Flight 2005 later took off from the Wisconsin airport at 1:37 a.m. Saturday and landed in Minneapolis at 2:19 a.m., according to FlightAware.
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