A United Airlines flight arriving from the Dominican Republic declared an in-flight emergency on Saturday evening after a passenger allegedly attacked a flight attendant and attempted to open the cabin door.
The incident occurred aboard United Airlines Flight 1837, which landed at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) around 5:21 pm after departing from Puerto Plata.
Pilot’s distress call captured on audio
According to air traffic control recordings accessed by The Mirror US, the pilots urgently requested police assistance as the plane approached the gate.“United 1837, we’re declaring a state of emergency. It seems like someone just attacked one of our flight attendants,” one of the pilots said in audio recorded by the ATC app.
The crew then asked for emergency vehicles to meet the aircraft. When controllers inquired about the nature of the emergency, the pilot replied: “A gentleman just attacked one of the flight attendants and tried to open the forward main cabin door.”
The air traffic controller responded with audible shock, saying, “Oh my God.” A second pilot on board requested that the aircraft be directed to a gate “ASAP” and met by law enforcement officers.
No injuries to passengers or crew have been publicly detailed at this time, and it remains unclear whether the passenger was subdued by crew or fellow passengers. United Airlines and law enforcement authorities have not yet released an official statement on the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local police are expected to investigate the event.
Same day shock: Spirit Airlines announces shutdown
The incident happened on the same day that Spirit Airlines announced it was shutting down after failing to secure a $500 million rescue deal with the Trump administration. The airline said on its website on Saturday that, with “great disappointment,” it had “started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately.”
This meant all its flights were cancelled, leaving many passengers and employees stranded.
Spirit Airlines CEO Dave Davis blamed rising fuel prices linked to Trump’s Iran war for the airline’s collapse. He said the higher costs disrupted the airline’s plans to recover after filing for bankruptcy twice in less than a year, according to a report by The Mirror US.
He added that the “sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative but to pursue an orderly wind-down of the company.”
“Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure,” he said, according to CNBC. “This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted.”