A New York City-bound private jet made an emergency landing in North Platte on Monday after a 23-year-old man began yelling at other passengers and threatening to kill them shortly after takeoff, an FBI agent said in court documents.
Forty-five minutes after the jet picked up Maurice Paola in Las Vegas, Paola began arguing with the flight attendant, threatened to decapitate the other passengers and directly threatened a family with two children, ages 4 and 6, sitting in the back of the plane, according to an affidavit for his arrest.
He started throwing items at passengers, walking back and forth, pounding on windows, banging his head on walls and insisting that the plane land immediately, Special Agent Mark Cullinan said in the affidavit.
A pilot came out of the cockpit and tried to calm Paola, but he continued screaming, Cullinan said.
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Eventually, the flight crew barricaded themselves in the cockpit, the flight attendant armed herself with an oxygen bottle, and they declared an emergency, the special agent wrote.
When the plane landed at North Platte Regional Airport, Lincoln County sheriff's deputies and North Platte police boarded the 12-passenger jet, where Paola remained agitated and standing between four passengers, Cullinan said.
He didn't acknowledge the officers' presence, so they subdued him using a Taser, the special agent said.
After he was checked out at a hospital, he was taken to jail and charged with making terroristic threats and resisting arrest, but those charges have since been dismissed.
The plane had picked up Paola as part of a flight-sharing service called JetSmarter. Passengers re-boarded after they had "decompressed," and the flight continued on to White Plains, New York, Cullinan said.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Paola with interference with flight crew members and attendants, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, according to court records.
The man, who lists his occupation as a DJ on LinkedIn, has been detained by the U.S. Marshal's Service pending a hearing next week.