A United Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Newark was forced to abort its journey just 20 minutes after takeoff. The emergency return to the departure airport was prompted by a passenger's text messages, which a flight attendant noticed and which raised serious concerns among the crew, infohub.kz reports.
According to People, the Boeing 737 was carrying 150 passengers and six crew members. A flight attendant noticed suspicious messages on the man's phone: he allegedly wrote that he was going to hijack the plane.
In recordings of communications with air traffic controllers, the pilot said that the flight attendant had reported the passenger's messages to him. The crew then implemented security measures.
“The passenger knows nothing about what is happening. The flight attendant saw him writing that he was going to hijack the plane. He is behaving calmly,” the pilot explained to the controllers.
Las Vegas police confirmed to the publication the detention of 25-year-old Dante Milne. He is suspected of making threats or conveying false information about terrorist acts.