Alaska Airlines flight 305 from Miami to Seattle aborted its departure Sunday evening following reported threats from passengers.
The Boeing 737-800 pushed back from gate E6 at approximately 6:29 p.m. Eastern time before returning to the gate roughly 18 minutes later under cockpit lockdown protocols.
During communications with air traffic control, the flight crew reported that cabin attendants had received threats from customers aboard the aircraft.
In a recording of communications obtained by Enhanced Radar, one of the pilots told the tower: “Ramp, Alaska 305, we have set the parking brake and we have a customer disturbance on board right now, with threats coming from customers. We want to go into a lockdown protocol.”
The pilot added: “The flight attendants have received threats from customers on board the aircraft… the last thing we heard from the flight attendant is that we had a customer threat to take the aircraft over.”
When asked by controllers whether law enforcement contact was needed, the crew responded affirmatively.
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Airport District deputies responded to one of the gates at Miami International Airport.
Out of an abundance of caution, passengers were temporarily deplaned while deputies investigated the incident.
The aircraft remained under lockdown procedures at the gate, with the cockpit door secured until law enforcement removed the threatening individual from the plane.
Within hours, investigators made their determination.
The investigation determined there was no credible threat, according to Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. The two individuals involved were rebooked on another flight.
The aircraft was cleared, passengers were permitted to reboard, and the flight continued without further incident.
This was “see something, say something” by a flight attendant that turned out to be nothing, an aviation source reported. The two people who were questioned are in the air to Seattle on their rebooked flight.
However,
the Alaska flight was just cancelled due to crew time limits.
Instituted after the September 11 attacks, the lockdown protocol in commercial aviation is where the reinforced flight deck door is completely sealed to prevent access to the cockpit.
In normal operation the door can be opened from the cabin side through a keypad and interphone procedure. A lockdown means the crew has disabled that pathway entirely. Nobody in the cabin can get in, by any code, for any reason, until the pilots decide otherwise.
The incident prompted social media commentary noting the flight number’s historical significance—Northwest Orient flight 305 was hijacked by the unidentified individual known as D.B. Cooper in November 1971. That hijacker obtained a ransom and parachutes before disappearing mid-flight and was never apprehended.
Interfering with a flight crew is also a civil-enforcement matter for the Federal Aviation Administration. Under the zero-tolerance policy the agency adopted in January 2021, the FAA skips warning letters and goes straight to proposed fines, which can now reach $43,658 per violation, with a single incident capable of generating several.
In the viral moment that set off alarms,
Alaska Airlines flight 305 from Miami to Seattle on August 9 pushed back and then minutes later returned to the gate under a lockdown protocol after passenger threats being made to flight attendants and at least one customer threatening to take over the aircraft.
The pilots stopped the departure, returned to their gate E6, and law enforcement met the Boeing 737-800.
The details are unusually well documented because the crew was talking to the tower the entire time.
The two disruptive passengers were removed from Flight 305, and because deputies had formally concluded there was nothing credible to charge, they were legally free to fly. So they were booked onto another departure.