A Delta Airlines pilot was arrested, and taken from the Minneapolis-San Francisco flight moments after it landed.
A video showing the pilot being taken away is doing the rounds on social media.
Passengers reported saying multiple federal agents rushing into the cockpit and make the arrest. A passenger recounted to Fox 9 that they were told by authorities to remain in their seats as they made their way through the first class and into the cockpit.
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The co-pilot was then handcuffed and led away, with some of the agents being identified as Homeland Security investigators.
{{/usCountry}}The co-pilot was then handcuffed and led away, with some of the agents being identified as Homeland Security investigators.
{{/usCountry}}The passenger told the publication that even the flight crew seemed to be confused by the arrest. “I looked at him and I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘I have no idea,’” he said, adding, “And he genuinely looked like this was a surprise that all of a sudden there was people on the plane because he had had us stand up, we were starting to take our stuff out for arrival and everybody was already in the overhead bins.”
Why was the pilot arrested?
Though there are no official statements yet, Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin, said that the Delta co-pilot was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents on charges of child sexual abuse material.
Melugin, cited a senior federal source when posting the information on X.
Authorities are yet to release the name of the pilot. Moreover, neither Delta nor Homeland have commented on the arrest.
A passenger, recounting the arrest, told San Francisco Chronicle “A group of people with badges, guns, and different agency vests/markings were pushing their way up through the aisle to the cockpit. It was rage-inducing to see someone being disappeared right in front of me.”
Notably, the arrest comes on the same day as the news of the Justice Department shutting down dark web child abuse sites that had 2,000 members and millions of files.