LOS ANGELES — An airline passenger who tried to break into a plane’s cockpit before jumping out of the moving plane onto a runway in Los Angeles was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
Luis Armando Victoria Dominguez was arrested last year after the incident on a United Airlines flight from LAX to Salt Lake City. While the flight was taxiing before takeoff, Dominguez ran to the front of the plane and started banging on the cockpit door, KTLA reported. When he couldn’t get in, Dominguez assaulted a flight attendant, opened the emergency exit door and deployed the slide before his arrest, KTLA reported.
Prosecutors with the Department of Justice said Dominguez “endangered the lives of countless others when he attempted to breach the cockpit of the plane and then partially deployed a slide while the plane was taxiing, causing the pilot to immediately shut off the engine to avoid having the slide sucked into the engine.”
Prosecutors say Dominguez’s actions also damaged the plane and he was ordered to pay $20,132 in restitution, KNBC reported.
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