Pilots aboard a United Airlines flight declared the highest possible hijacking alert Monday night after a passenger falsely claimed he had a bomb and rushed the cockpit door.
United flight 2174, a Boeing 737 carrying 46 passengers and six crew members, had departed Newark International Airport around 9:30 p.m. Bound for New Orleans. The suspect, Rony Gomez-Alberto, 34, began acting erratically during the trip, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Air traffic control audio captured the escalating situation as crew members worked to contain the threat. “He changed into all black before he started trying to reach the cockpit,” authorities are heard saying in the recordings. The flight crew eventually convinced Gomez-Alberto to move to the rear of the aircraft, allowing pilots to secure the cockpit and continue toward their destination.
The pilots transmitted a “Level 4” threat alert, the highest aviation alert reserved for hijacking situations. “We do have the plane empty except for the pilot and [co-]pilot who are locked in the cockpit right now,” a first responder stated in the audio, according to recordings obtained from the incident.
Gomez-Alberto, a New Yorker identified by local authorities as a Honduran national, had spoken “nearly no English,” according to the air traffic recordings. He remained on the aircraft attempting to negotiate with police after the plane touched down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport around 11:15 p.m., authorities told WDSU News.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office met the aircraft upon arrival. Passengers were safely evacuated while the pilots remained secured in the cockpit. Gomez-Alberto was taken into custody on the ground and later charged with communication of false information of planned arson and terrorizing. He is being held without bail at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson revealed Gomez-Alberto’s immigration history in a statement to The Post. He had been arrested twice for illegally entering the United States, first in September 2011 near El Indio, Texas, and again in October 2014 in Columbus, New Mexico. He was deported following both arrests.
Gomez-Alberto re-entered the country a third time in 2019 through California’s San Ysidro border town, where Border Patrol apprehended him. A judge ordered his release from ICE custody in January 2020 pending removal proceedings. ICE lodged a detainer for Gomez-Alberto with local authorities on Tuesday, according to DHS.
The incident came just weeks after another security scare on a United flight bound for New Jersey. Dante Milne, 25, a trainee welder from Woodridge, was arrested for allegedly threatening to hijack an October 24 flight from Las Vegas. A flight attendant reportedly observed Milne typing a text message that read, “I’m gonna hijack this bitch and crash ur row only,” according to a criminal complaint. That aircraft returned to Harry Reid International Airport approximately 15 minutes after takeoff. Milne later told police he had been drunk and joking with a friend, describing the message as poorly worded “banter between coworkers,” the arrest report stated.
United Airlines confirmed the Monday night incident and said the Sheriff’s office met the aircraft upon its arrival in New Orleans.