Shocking moment federal air marshals 'stormed the cockpit' of Delta flight and arrested co-pilot
The federal agents entered Flight 2809 from Minneapolis shortly after it landed at the San Francisco International Airport at around 9.35pm on Saturday.
They were filmed donning plainclothes and wearing law enforcement badges around their necks. Their faces were cropped out in video shared online.
But passengers said the group of 10 officers included agents from Homeland Security Investigations and others who identified as federal air marshals, KTLA reports.
'A group of people with badges, guns and different agency vests/markings were pushing their way through the aisle to the cockpit,' a passenger who was sitting in first class told the San Francisco Chronicle.
She went on to explain that the officers 'stormed the cockpit, cuffed the pilot, arrested him, walked him down the aisle and ushered him off the plane through the cabin doors located between first and coach.'
Soon after, a second team of agents returned to the plane to collect the unidentified co-pilot's personal belongings.
Authorities did not immediately reveal why the co-pilot was apprehended. But Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin cited a senior federal official who claims the co-pilot was taken into custody by Homeland Security Investigations on allegations involving child sexual abuse materials.
The arrest seemed to shock even those who worked on the flight.
Video shared online showed federal agents in plainclothes wearing badges around their necks entering Flight 2809 from Minneapolis shortly after it landed at the San Francisco International Airport at around 9.35pm on Saturday. The officers then arrested the co-pilot of the flight
🚨 BREAKING: A Delta pilot was arrested by HSI (Homeland Security) on CSAM charges. pic.twitter.com/5oV9NYaw97
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) July 27, 2025
The remaining pilot said he had no idea what was happening, View from the Wing reports, and a passenger on the flight recounted asking a member of the flight crew what was happening.
'I looked at him and said "What's going on?" He said, "I have no idea,"' the passenger told Fox 9.
'And he genuinely looked like this was a surprise, that all of a sudden there was people on the plane, because he had us stand up, we were starting to take our stuff out for arrival and everybody was already in the overhead bin.'
The passenger who spoke to the Chronicle ultimately called the experience 'shocking and unnerving,' noting that those on board received no information from the crew about what had occurred.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Secret Service ex-director who quit after Trump assassination attempt faces fresh humiliation
Kimberly Cheatle, the former Secret Service director who resigned in disgrace following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, has suffered a new professional blow after receiving news her security clearance will not be renewed. The decision by the Secret Service, first reported by RealClearPolitics came after a wave of fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who led a sweeping investigation into the agency's catastrophic failures at Trump's July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 'Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign,' Johnson said. 'I see no reason for her security clearance to be reinstated.' Cheatle, handpicked by then–First Lady Jill Biden in 2022, had previously led the agency through what congressional investigators later described as one of the most glaring security breakdowns in presidential protection in modern history. Trump narrowly survived the July 13, 2024, shooting after a bullet grazed his ear, while a local firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were wounded in the chaos. Cheatle stepped down just 10 days later following intense pressure from lawmakers who demanded accountability over a security detail that failed to station an officer on the rooftop where the gunman had positioned himself, among other lapses. The revocation of her clearance is not only a personal humiliation for Cheatle, but also a stark departure from past practice. For decades, the Secret Service has routinely renewed security clearances for its former directors, maintaining open channels for consultations on national security issues. But under new Director Sean Curran, a Trump loyalist and the former head of the president's protective detail, that tradition has now ended. 'Director Curran has been modernizing the intelligence apparatus within the agency,' a Secret Service spokesperson said. 'During that process, he has determined that not all former directors will have their clearances renewed.' The process to renew Cheatle's clearance was already underway until RealClearPolitics inquired about Johnson's objections. Soon after, the agency seemed to reverse course. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), a Judiciary Committee member who jointly investigated the Butler debacle, offered no sympathy. 'Kim Cheatle disgraced the Secret Service by failing to prevent a horrifying attempt on President Trump's life,' Blackburn said in a statement. 'Not only did she oversee one of the greatest security failures in our nation's history, but she also stonewalled congressional oversight and ran away from my colleagues and me when we confronted her. 'Under no circumstances should she be allowed to regain her security clearance, and it is shameful she would even try.' On the one-year anniversary of the Butler rally, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), now chair of the Homeland Security Committee, issued a scathing report accusing Cheatle of lying to Congress when she claimed under oath she had not denied requests for increased security for Trump. Cheatle, speaking through her attorney, denied the accusation in a rare public statement. 'Any assertion or implication that I provided misleading testimony is patently false and does a disservice to those men and women on the front lines who have been unfairly disciplined for a team, rather than individual, failure.' And it appears this may not be the last of it. House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer has said a criminal referral is still on the table. 'If stark evidence of an intentional effort to deceive arises... this Committee will respond,' an Oversight aide said. 'Whether or not Ms. Cheatle's testimony meets the legal definition of misleading Congress, it's clear she failed in her mission leading the agency and appropriately resigned.' According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in July, the Secret Service received classified warnings about a possible Iranian threat to Trump 10 days before the Butler rally but that intelligence that was never passed to agents securing the site. The report, commissioned by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), reinforced suspicions that Cheatle's office had treated Trump more like a former president than a current presidential candidate, despite clear evidence that he was a high-value target. Multiple Secret Service insiders said Cheatle's team had repeatedly denied Curran's requests for additional counter-sniper support and other heightened security assets during the 2024 campaign. Cheatle's fall is just one part of a much larger shake-up in the US intelligence world under Trump's second term. Within 24 hours of retaking office, the president signed an executive order revoking the clearances of dozens of former intelligence officials including the now-infamous '51 spies who lied' who had signed a 2020 letter dismissing the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop story as 'Russian disinformation.' Among those stripped of access: John Brennan, James Clapper, Leon Panetta, Michael Hayden, and John Bolton. In March, Trump went further, ordering the suspension of clearances for the Democratic-aligned law firm Perkins Coie, which was central to commissioning the now-discredited Steele dossier during the 2016 election. A federal judge has since blocked that order, but DOJ lawyers are appealing. National security attorney Sean Bigley said the revocations reflect a reform that is long-overdue. 'You have all of these former government bureaucrats, who are continuing to have access to the highest level of classified information... and then they can go and take that continued insider access and make themselves a hot commodity in the private sector or on the cable news circuit,' Bigley told RCP. 'That's not what security clearances are supposed to be used for – it's a fringe benefit that should be pulled.' Despite Cheatle's ousting, Trump has publicly taken a more tempered tone toward the Secret Service rank-and-file. 'They should have had communications with the local police... So there were mistakes made,' Trump said in an interview last month with Fox News. 'But I was satisfied in terms of the bigger plot... And I have great confidence in these people... They had a bad day. And I think they'll admit that.' Last month, the agency suffered another embarrassing episode when a Secret Service agent tried to sneak his wife onto an Air Force One flight during Trump's overseas trip to Scotland.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Police continue to search for Montana gunman who killed four people in a bar
Authorities continued to search Saturday afternoon for the man accused of killing four people at a Montana bar. Local, state and federal law enforcement were looking for 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, a US army veteran who lived in a small town, Anaconda, next to The Owl Bar, where on Friday morning he allegedly opened fire and killed a bartender and three patrons. Officials located Brown's abandoned white truck according to Lee Johnson, Montana division of criminal investigation administrator. They concentrated their search in the mountains west of Anaconda, a town of less than 10,000 residents that was centered around a copper processing facility. 'This is a small, tight-knit community that has been harmed by the heinous actions of one individual who does not represent what this community or Montanans stand for,' Johnson said. On Friday night, nearby residents were encouraged to stay inside their homes and be on high alert as law enforcement believed Brown was armed and dangerous, Johnson said. But on Saturday afternoon, Bill Sather, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge police chief, told residents it was 'OK to go about your business in town' but to use caution and report anything suspicious to law enforcement. Authorities released a photo of Brown, who is 5ft 10in tall; weighs about 170lbs; and has blue eyes and brown hair, according to USA Today. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting local and state police with the search, according to posts on X. As of Saturday afternoon, law enforcement had not released the names of the victims. Brown served in the US army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005 and was deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005, according to an army spokesperson. He was in the Montana national guard from 2006 to March 2009 and left military service in the rank of sergeant. 'This isn't just a drunk/high man going wild,' Brown's niece, Clare Boyle, wrote in a Facebook message to the Associated Press. 'It's a sick man who doesn't know who he is sometimes and frequently doesn't know where or when he is either.' Montana ranked second worst in the country in terms of prevalence of mental illness and access to care, according to the non-profit Mental Health America. Two-thirds of adults in Montana also lived in homes with guns, the highest rate in the country, according to a 2016 study from RAND, a thinktank. The owner of the Firefly Café in Anaconda told the Associated Press that she locked up her business after a friend alerted her to the shooting. 'We are Montana, so guns are not new to us,' Barbie Nelson said. 'For our town to be locked down, everybody's pretty rattled.' Associated Press contributed reporting
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Tennessee: Man tries to detonate 14 explosive devices while being arrested
Police in Tennessee have discovered 14 improvised explosive devices in a man's home as they were arresting him, the local sheriff's office said. Officers were executing a warrant in the home of Kevin Wade O'Neal in Old Fort, about 45 miles (70km) east of Chattanooga, after he had threatened to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in Polk County. After arresting the 54-year-old, officers noticed "something smouldering" in the bedroom where he was found. On closer inspection, they discovered an improvised explosive device and evacuated the house until bomb squad officers arrived at the scene. Fourteen devices were found inside the property - none of which detonated. O'Neal was charged with 11 counts of attempted first-degree murder, corresponding to nine officers and two other people inside the property when the suspect tried to detonate the devices. He also faces 14 counts of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of explosive components.
