A California man is facing federal charges for choking and assaulting flight attendants during a trip to San Francisco this week that had to be diverted to another airport, the Justice Department said Thursday. Charles Angel Salva, 30, of Fremont, is charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants. He appeared in federal court on Thursday.
A federal court complaint states that on Monday, Salva was on Frontier Airlines Flight 3581, which departed John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana bound for San Francisco International Airport. Just after takeoff, as the plane was below 10,000 feet and climbing, flight attendants noticed that the oxygen masks in one row of the middle of the aircraft were out of the overhead compartment. When they looked, they discovered that Salva had his hand in the overhead compartment, authorities said. A passenger told investigators that Salva appeared claustrophobic and seemed like he wanted to get off the plane.
The passenger said Salva pulled the oxygen masks down from the overhead compartment and got his hand stuck. He then began yelling obscenities and said, “We are all going to hell” and “This airplane is going down,” according to court documents. A flight attendant restrained him as he tried to grab passengers, authorities said. Salva then allegedly ran toward the back of the aircraft and grabbed the lanyard around a flight attendant’s neck and said, I’m going to choke this b—-, while trying to choke her.
He also pushed another flight attendant with force and said he was going to kill everybody, federal prosecutors said. Passengers tried to restrain Salva as he kicked the second flight attendant in the leg. The plane was diverted to Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California, where authorities boarded the plane and saw passengers holding him down.
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