United flight diverted to Wisconsin after passenger’s ‘multiple attempts’ to breach cockpit, crew member says

United Airlines planes sit parked at San Francisco International Airport on January 20 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Minneapolis diverted to Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday night after an “unruly passenger” caused a security concern on board, the airline said.

Air traffic control audio reviewed by CNN captured crew members of United flight 2005 describing a passenger who had made “multiple attempts to try to breach the cockpit” before law enforcement officers on board were able to restrain him.

After the plane landed in Madison, the passenger was detained by local authorities, FBI spokesperson Caroline Clancy said in a statement to CNN.

Federal agents and law enforcement officers responded to the airport, but officials have not disclosed the passenger’s identity, whether any charges have been filed or what specific actions led to the detention.

CNN has reached out to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and Madison airport officials for additional information.

Mike Rundle, a passenger on board the flight, described to CNN a tense situation that unfolded midair.

A fellow passenger “saw the man at the front of the plane near the cockpit, in their words, kind of reach for a flight attendant, and subsequently had multiple guys hold him back,” Rundle said.

In the ATC audio reviewed by CNN, the crew can be heard telling ground controllers at Dane County Regional Airport that law enforcement officers who were traveling on the plane were able to get control of the passenger.

The crew told ground controllers the passenger was “seated in a seat” and “flanked” by law enforcement officers on either side before outside law enforcement boarded the aircraft.

Rundle said he witnessed “a little bit of a commotion” a couple of rows ahead of him and people leading the man back to his seat.

The plane then “made a U-turn and diverted to Madison,” he added. After the flight diverted, police boarded the plane and appeared to handcuff the man and walk him off the plane, Rundle said.

The FBI was notified and “FBI Milwaukee’s Madison Resident Agency and local law enforcement partners responded immediately,” Clancy said in the statement to CNN. “A subject was detained by the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and afterwards passengers resumed their flight.”

Signs of possible trouble emerged before the plane was in the air.

Prior to the flight’s takeoff, Rundle said the man who was later detained had “stood up during the taxiing at O’Hare” International Airport and was asked repeatedly to sit down.

Crew members asked whether anyone on board could speak Russian and asked that person “to come to the front of the plane to help interpret,” Rundle said. The man eventually sat down and the flight took off.

The plane, a Boeing 737, which was carrying 147 passengers and six crew members, landed safely and no injuries were reported, the airline said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to CNN the flight landed safely after the crew reported a passenger disturbance, noting that airlines have reported more than 640 unruly passenger incidents so far this year.

The FAA “investigates all passenger-disturbance incidents” and pursues legal enforcement action “against any passenger who assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crewmembers, and can propose civil penalties up to US$43,658 per violation.”

By Alaa Elassar, Martin Goillandeau, CNN