A photo of the incident was posted on Reddit through the Imgur service.
WASHINGTON — A United Airlines spokesman says a flight headed from Washington, D.C., to Denver had to return to Dulles International Airport after a passenger allegedly ran at the cockpit yelling “Jihad! Jihad!,” according to reports on Reddit.
Spokesman Luke Punzenberger said in an emailed statement that Flight 1074 returned after takeoff Monday evening. He says local law enforcement met the aircraft at the gate and detained the passenger. His statement did not provide further details about what happened on board the Boeing 737.
Airport spokeswoman Kimberly Gibbs said the passenger was taken to a local hospital for evaluation. She said she did not know what happened on the flight.
Gibbs said early Tuesday that the flight was preparing to take off again for Denver International Airport.
A video, which appeared online Tuesday, purports to show the man on the ground apologizing after the incident. Commenters on Reddit said that the man yelled “Jihad! Jihad!” before making a run at the cockpit.
Despite the caption on the video, it’s unclear if the man was actually attempting to hijack the plane or was otherwise mentally disturbed.
Redditer “iLL_D” said that he was on the plane and the incident happened just after they had taken off for Denver from Washington.
“He was screaming and sprinting towards the cockpit,” iLL_D wrote. “Several large passengers tackled him before he even reached the door.”
“He claimed to have bombs on board when first taken down, they are still looking into it but I imagine it was most likely a lie.”
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