A US man is facing criminal charges for assaulting a sleeping passenger on a United Airlines flight.
According to The New Zealand Herald, the authorities have said that a man brutally beat up another passenger in mid-flight in an apparent random attack.
As per the lawsuit filed by the FBI in the district court in Virginia, the incident happened on a United Airlines flight UA2247 from San Francisco to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, on Monday, October 28, 2024.
After two hours into the flight, a passenger from Florida named Everett Chad Nelson went to the bathroom, and on his way back to his seat in 35F, he stopped and attacked a 44-year-old man who was sleeping in his seat in 12F.
The court document stated that Nelson “without notice, began physically attacking a sleeping male passenger by punching him repeatedly in the face and head until blood was drawn.”
The alleged attack lasted for a minute before the invasion of other passengers, and the unidentified victim sustained two black eyes, a gash on the nose, and some blood splashes.
Sandhya Gupta, who was sitting behind the victim, told ABC7 News, “He was just very violently and very aggressively just pummeling the guy who was in the window seat who was in front of me, and it was vicious. This wasn’t like a bar room, I’m going to throw a couple of punches around, I mean, this was vicious.”
Furthermore, Nelson is charged with one count of committing assault by beating. He is scheduled to appear in court on December 11, 2024.
