Woman zip tied mid-flight after threatening to kill flight attendant

An unruly passenger was restrained with zip ties mid-flight after she threatened to kill a flight attendant, forcing the plane to land.

An unruly passenger forced an Alaska Airlines flight to land at a different airport. Picture: istock

An unruly Alaska Airlines passenger who had to be restrained with zip ties mid-flight was arrested after she threatened to kill a flight attendant, forcing the plane to land.

Chloe M. Dasilva, 32, was charged with one count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants, federal prosecutors in Kansas City announced on Monday.

While on-board a non-stop flight from San Francisco International Airport to Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Friday, Ms Dasilva became “disruptive” and got into a profanity-laden confrontation with a male flight attendant, threatening to kill him, reports New York Post.

A flight attendant and two passengers restrained her with zip ties.

A mother and her baby who were sitting directly in front of Ms Dasilva switched seats with another passenger for their safety, prosecutors said.

The pilot, who was concerned about the safety of other passengers, decided to divert the flight to Kansas City about 4.20am.

The Alaska Airlines flight was forced to land at another airport. Picture: istock

Ms Dasilva appeared in federal court on Monday. The incident is under investigation by the FBI.

Last month, US Senate and House members proposed a new no-fly list for misbehaving passengers that would allow the Transportation Security Administration to ban people convicted or fined for assaulting or interfering with commercial airline crew members.

The number of mile-high incidents involving unruly passengers have dropped since a judge struck down the Covid-19 mask requirement on planes.

There were only two reported unruly passengers on 10,000 flights for the week ending April 9 this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

However, incidents are still a whopping five times higher than before the Covid pandemic hit, leading to airline unions backing the bill.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission