A man has been arrested after pointing a razor blade at a female plane passenger’s throat before holding her hostage during a nerve-racking flight.
The incident took place on a JetBlue flight from New York City to Salt Lake City on November 21.
According to the reports, a Utah man, who was since identified as 41-year-old Merrill Darrell Fackrell of Syracuse, managed to smuggle a razor blade on the flight in question.
After having “several alcoholic drinks,” the man pointed the blade to a fellow passenger and ordered her to stop looking at her screen and remove her headphones.
Shocked by the blade inches away from her neck, the woman froze, and the man went on to stand up and yell: “She’s going to be ok, no one needs to worry.”
Fackrell then turned to the victim’s husband and told him to “get the f*** out of here” before grabbing the lady by her shoulder when she tried to run for the aisle.
Fortunately, another passenger named Rob intervened and subdued the suspect while the woman’s husband called flight attendants for help.
After getting rid of the blade and giving it to the staff for safekeeping, Rob sat down next to Fackrell and remained there until the plane landed and the police stormed the plane to arrest the suspect.
Recalling the nerve-racking midair experience was Abraham Neiderhauser who was just returning home following a five-month Euro trip.
“He’s grabbing the woman next to him, he has something in his hand. He says, ‘Don’t worry, she’s going to be fine. She’s going to be fine,’ and it was kind of a weird thing and kind of ominous, too, the way he was grabbing her. And it’s like, what is that? Is that like a weapon or something?” he said.
“He’s like, ‘This ain’t no 9/11 s**t.’ He’s like, ‘just land the plane, and everyone will be fine.
’ We didn’t understand why he wanted the plane landed. Everyone was really scared. The area around where him and Rob were kind of engaging just cleared out, it’s like the whole front section of the plane was empty. All the airline crew was gone.
”
Neiderhauser went on to praise “very brave” Rob for “engaging like this” and potentially saving the woman and her partner from a worse fate.
Fackrell has since been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and carrying a weapon on an aircraft.
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