A man who caused a flight from Dulles International Airport to Denver to turn around in March is charged with interfering with a flight crew.
After takeoff a United Airlines pilot told air traffic controllers a passenger became violent and ran toward the cockpit.
According to court documents, a witness heard the 36-year-old Texas man shout, "This plane isn't going fast enough. It's going to go down. Let me in! I have to talk to them. We are going down. Oh God! Open the door!"
A flight attendant and three passengers restrained him, at which point he yelled that there was something in the belly of the plane, according to court documents. He also yelled "jihad."
Police met the aircraft at the gate and detained the passenger, he said.
The flight attendants did not feel comfortable flying again that night, so the flight was canceled and the passengers were scheduled on flights leaving the next morning, according to court documents.
The man told investigators he suffered from panic attacks and fear of flying and said he'd had several drinks before the flight, according to FBI records.
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It wasn't his first incident.
He boarded a flight at Reagan National Airport earlier the same day but was removed for being "non-compliant" with the crew, according to authorities.
He also tried to take a flight from Reagan the day before. He paced back and forth nervously between his seat and the galley and asked to be let off the plane, authorities said.
The night of the Dulles flight, a flight attendant concerned about the man's behavior suggested to a gate agent he be removed, but he remained on the plane, authorities said.
