An Alaska Airlines passenger stabbed a man sitting next to him with the handle of a makeshift pen in a bloody attack before threatening his wife and son, police said.
Julio Álvarez López was arrested on January 24 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon after the bloody altercation.
Lopez allegedly planned an attack to kill a fellow traveler, which he attempted to carry out mid-flight between Seattle and Las Vegas using the improvised weapon.
The suspect was described as “restless” throughout the flight while traveling from Seattle to Las Vegas last month, according to documents obtained by 8 News now.
Upon returning to his seat after an unusually long visit to the bathrooms, he began “hitting and punching” the man sitting across the aisle, attempting to stab him in the eye, according to the outlet.
Julio Álvarez López allegedly planned an attack to kill a fellow passenger (pictured), which he attempted to carry out mid-flight using the improvised weapon. (Pictured: victim)
Upon returning to his seat after an unusually long visit to the toilets, he began “punching and punching” the man sitting across the aisle, attempting to stab him in the eye with a makeshift weapon made of ballpoint pens (pictured).
Lopez also allegedly attacked the victim’s wife while she was trying to protect their 7-year-old son from the violent man.
A witness told investigators that “there was blood everywhere.”
“During the altercation, [the victim’s] “The wife was yelling at the defendant to stop hitting her husband,” an FBI agent wrote in a court filing. ‘[A witness] He unbuckled his seat belt and yelled at the defendant to stop.
An official aboard the flight ordered Lopez to take a seat while the crew “worked to provide him with flexible handcuffs and the defendant was restrained for the remainder of the flight.”
After the brutal attack, Lopez began “yelling, ‘I’ll only talk to the FBI.'”
During an interview, he told airport officials that he allegedly “felt like the mob had been chasing him” and that he had never seen the victim “but planned to kill.” [him]’ because he believed he was being followed, the documents said.
A witness told investigators that “there was blood everywhere”
Boeing has reportedly fired the head of its 737 Max program following the Alaska Airlines plane scandal, which exposed a litany of safety lapses.
Investigators found the weapon, made up of pens and rubber bands, according to the documents.
A federal grand jury indicted Lopez on assault charges Wednesday.
Ed Clark, vice president of the MAX program and general manager of the Renton facility, is leaving the company after 18 years.
He will be replaced by Katie Ringgold, the current vice president of 737 delivery operations.
It comes after a faulty door plug caused a panel to detach at 16,000 feet from a Boeing 737 series aircraft on an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5. The aircraft was assembled at the Renton facility.
This comes after the Alaska Airlines plane scandal that exposed a litany of safety failures. A defective door plug caused a panel to detach at 16,000 feet from a Boeing 737 series aircraft on an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5.
A photo shows the window blown out. It is offered as a door on the plane. Alaska opted not to take this option, although the potential door frame was completely torn off by the fuselage failure.
Aviation regulators temporarily grounded the Max 9s pending safety checks, but now they are back in the skies.
Boeing’s value fell from $150 billion on the day of the Alaska Airlines scare to a low of $120 billion on January 16.
Clark’s firing was announced in an email sent by Commercial Airplanes chief Stan Deal to employees Wednesday morning.
Deal said the leadership shake-up is intended to ensure an “increased focus on ensuring that every aircraft we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements.”
Panic audio from the Alaska Airlines chaos showed how the pilot radioed for help after the Boeing 737 Max plane’s window burst shortly after takeoff.
The aircraft was assembled at the Renton facility. Reports suggest that fortunately 26A, the seat next to what appears to have been a windowed emergency exit, was not occupied.
Accident investigators are calling it a miracle that everyone on board survived after the “truly terrifying” breakup on the flight from Portland to Ontario International Airport in California.
Toys, phones and clothing were sucked into the night after the outlet door “popped off the plane,” causing instant decompression for 171 passengers aboard Flight 1282.
But the fact that most people were still wearing seat belts just 10 minutes into the flight likely prevented them from following their belongings through the hole, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
“We are very, very fortunate here that this did not end in something more tragic,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference days later.
“There was no one sitting at 26A and 26B, where the door socket is.” ‘That said, I imagine this was a pretty scary event. “We don’t often talk about psychological damage, but I’m sure that happened here.”