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A 19-year-old pupil pilot from Northern Virginia who tried repeatedly to enter the cockpit of an Alaska Airways flight from California to Virginia earlier this month has been charged with interfering with a flight crew, in line with court docket paperwork.
The person, Nathan Jones, was touring on Alaska Airways Flight 322 from San Diego Worldwide Airport to Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport on March 3 when he “interfered and intimidated flight crew members and attendants,” in line with an affidavit filed the subsequent day within the District Courtroom for the Jap District of Virginia.
His lawyer filed a movement this week arguing that Mr. Jones may not be mentally match to face trial.
The affidavit stated that Mr. Jones, a passenger in seat 6E, tried 3 times to go to the entrance of the airplane and “open the plane’s cockpit door.” Flight attendants requested for help from off-duty legislation enforcement officers, who restrained Mr. Jones in flex cuffs and sat on both facet of him for the remainder of the flight.
Flight attendants used a beverage cart to dam the cockpit, the affidavit stated. Once they requested Mr. Jones why he tried to entry the cockpit, he stated he “was testing them.”
Alaska Airways stated that Mr. Jones “appeared confused” when making an attempt to get into the cockpit “in a nonviolent method.” Nobody was injured.
The Federal Aviation Administration stated in an emailed assertion on Thursday that the crew had reported the episode as a “passenger disturbance” aboard the Boeing 737 and that it was investigating. The flight landed safely at about 3:30 p.m. native time in Dulles, it stated.
Brokers searched Mr. Jones’s belongings after the touchdown and located notebooks with descriptions of the right way to function an plane, together with take off, in-air and touchdown methods, and a pockets containing his pupil pilot’s license, the affidavit stated.
His lawyer, Robert Lee Jenkins Jr., filed a movement on Wednesday requesting a psychological competency listening to for Mr. Jones, who’s being held at a detention heart in Alexandria, Va. Mr. Jenkins stated that Mr. Jones made statements to him that raised “severe considerations as as to if he understands the fees and cause for his detention.”
The movement included a letter from a therapist for the town of Alexandria who described Mr. Jones as having signs “indicative of a severe psychological sickness” and being on “suicide protocols.” It stated he was being restrained a number of occasions a day and wanted hospital care to stabilize his psychological standing.
“It seems to be an acute psychological well being episode,” Mr. Jenkins stated in an interview. “I’ve sought an order from the court docket to have him evaluated for competency to face trial and likewise for attainable madness on the time of the offense.”
Mr. Jenkins stated that Mr. Jones had traveled to Alaska to go to his father and was returning to Virginia through a connection in San Diego.
His subsequent listening to is about for March 18. Mr. Jenkins stated it could handle bond circumstances and his request for an analysis.
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