Video Shows Man Attempting To Open Emergency Door, Stab Flight Attendant

A video shared online shows a Massachusetts man threatening to open a plane's emergency door before trying to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon during a United Airlines cross country flight from Los Angeles to Boston on Sunday (March 5).

Francisco Severo Torres, 33, of Leominster, was charged with interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston announced in a statement obtained by the Associated Press on Monday (March 6). Lisa Olsen, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, shared footage of the incident with WJAR, which took place while she was traveling back to New England with her husband and 17-year-old daughter.

"He was talking about Nazis and raping women," Olsen told the news station. "I have my 17-year-old daughter next to me. She was crying. She was very upset. She wouldn't even let me touch her. She thought we were going to crash."

The plane was about 45 minutes from landing at Boston's Logan Airport when the flight crew was notified that a side door was disarmed and a flight attendant found its handle had moved out of the fully locked position "and that the emergency slide arming lever had been moved to the 'disarmed' position," federal prosecutors confirmed in Monday's news release. Another flight attendant claimed to have seen Torres near the door and suspected that he tampered with it.

The suspect allegedly asked flight attendants if there were cameras showing him tampering with the door after being confronted by the flight crew. The flight attendant then warned the captain that Torres was perceived to be a potential threat to the aircraft and that the plane needed to land as soon as possible.

Torres is heard arguing with nearby passengers and calling out for Homeland Security in the cell phone video recorded by Olsen.

"Tell them to bring SWAT to shoot me down because they're gonna have to shoot me down today," said Torres, who was seated in the middle seat of the exit row at the time. "Where are they diverting us because wherever it is, it's gonna be a bloodbath."

Torres also repeatedly referred to himself as "Balthazar" and claimed his father is "Dracula."

"Where's Homeland Security with the gun because I'm waiting for them to point the gun at me so that I can show everybody that I won't die when I take every bullet in that clip to wherever in my body, they shoot it and then I will kill every man on this plane," Torres said.

The suspect then exited his seat and approached two flight attendants at the side door, allegedly thrusting "towards one of the flight attendants in a stabbing motion with a broken metal spoon" and hitting the victim three times on the neck, prosecutors said. A group of male passengers confronted Torres at the front of the plane, at which point Olsen said he was placed in zip ties as the men took turns trying to restrain him before the flight landed.

Torres was arrested at Logan Airport after the plane landed.

“Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one customer was restrained after becoming a security concern on United flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston,” United Airlines said in a statement obtained by the AP. “The flight landed safely and was met by law enforcement.”