What an airline passenger encounters when they try to storm a cockpit
By Alexandra Skores, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Cruising above the clouds at 32,000 feet in the air, chaos erupted in the cabin of a Frontier Airlines flight from Puerto Rico to Chicago last month.
A 51-year-old passenger tried to open an exit door and now was trying to force his way into the cockpit.
According to court records, Juan Gabriel Reyes, began “shoving his shoulder aggressively on the pilot’s door” and later attempted to choke an off-duty flight attendant before he was eventually restrained.
The disruption caused the flight to divert to Miami International Airport where Reyes was taken into custody by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and is facing two charges in federal court. CNN reached out to Reyes’ attorney for comment, but she did not respond.
The incident came just a few days after a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Minneapolis diverted to Madison, Wisconsin, after a passenger made “multiple attempts to try to breach the cockpit,” according to air traffic control audio reviewed by CNN.
The recent disturbances are among 687 reports of unruly passengers the Federal Aviation Administration received so far this year, just as the busy summer travel season begins to ramp up.
No one has successfully stormed the cockpit of a commercial aircraft flying in the United States since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and multiple steps have been taken to keep a would-be attacker – or simply an out-of-control passenger – from doing so, but some experts say more could be done.
Reinforced cockpit doors
The doors to the cockpit that recent passengers tried to breach were locked and reinforced to prevent anyone from getting inside.
After the 9/11 attacks, airlines were required to install permanent reinforcements to all existing cockpit doors, and include them in newly-built aircraft, by April 2003. Many airlines and manufacturers opted to use bulletproof material, composites, reinforced door jambs and locks.
“Somebody is not going to knock down the door with their shoulder,” said John Pistole, former Transportation Security Administration administrator. “(They) might knock down their shoulder, but the door should stay intact.”
Prior to 9/11, the FAA had required cockpit doors to be able to be easily kicked open in case the crew became trapped.
Reinforced doors only work when they are closed, however — and on many long flights that is not possible for the entire trip.
What happens when the door opens
When a pilot needs to use the lavatory, get a meal, or switch seats with a relief pilot on a long flight, the reinforced door must be opened.
The potential security vulnerability has been a concern for years, and airlines use procedures including flight attendants blocking the aisle with drink carts to protect the cockpit.
A 2023 FAA rule required new planes have a secondary barrier that can be locked in place when the cockpit door must be opened.
Typically looking more like a gate than a solid door, the barriers are placed just in front of the first row of passengers and allow a pilot to exit the cockpit and visit the lavatory or the galley without leaving an unsecured path between passengers and the cockpit.
The rule was supposed to apply to newly manufactured commercial aircraft starting in the summer of 2025, but the FAA agreed to delay implementing the requirement until this August.
The agency told CNN it granted temporary relief to airlines, allowing time to facilitate FAA certification, install barriers and train crewmembers.
“Most exemptions will expire on July 31, 2026,” FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor told CNN in an email. “The FAA is considering extension requests for a few exemptions for airplanes with unique interior configurations.”
Aviation labor unions have opposed the delays and long argued that secondary barriers are needed.
“It’s just one of the most easy, clear security enhancements that you can have on an airplane,” said Capt. Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines’ pilots. “A quarter of a century, and we are still fighting to get a second layer of security on that flight deck door. This is unacceptable, unpatriotic, and just downright disrespectful to aviation security.”
However, Pistole warns that added costs for airlines could increase passenger ticket prices, and questions if the barriers are essential.
“If there’s been a 0% success rate for a bad person to get to cockpit in the US post-9/11… is it necessary? Would it be nice? Would it be good? Well, sure,” Pistole said. “(If) the airlines do it, then presumably ticket prices will go up for the economy, and so I don’t see a mandate.”
Currently, there are no approved secondary barriers for retrofitting older planes.
What are airlines doing about it?
Despite the delays in requirements, some new planes already have the new barriers in place.
Southwest Airlines’ newest jets are currently flying with the secondary barrier. Spokesperson Lynn Lunsford told CNN the barriers are put into use “immediately” and approximately 45 planes already have it installed.
American Airlines spokesperson Alex Dixon told CNN the airline “remains on track” to meet the FAA’s requirement this summer. Over 30 aircraft on American’s fleet already have secondary barriers installed.
Tajer said he has seen a video of it but has not flown with one yet.
United Airlines confirmed that beginning last year, all new planes were delivered with secondary barriers. Delta Air Lines said secondary barriers are in place “on a growing number of aircraft.”
Despite the significant problems posed by disruptive passengers, they are only a tiny fraction of all flyers.
Even so, every airline pilot and flight attendant undergoes extensive training to make sure they’re ready if there is a crisis onboard.
“The safety and security of our passengers and employees is always our highest priority, and airlines comply with all federal rules and regulations,” a spokesperson for Airlines for America, the lobbying group representing airlines said in a statement.
Delta, American and Southwest airlines all confirmed they train their crew members to respond to unruly passengers.
Delta, for example, trains flight attendants to prioritize safety and use their judgment to respond appropriately based on each situation, a spokesperson told CNN in an email.
“They undergo extensive, ongoing training to manage a wide range of onboard scenarios,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Southwest said it has “robust training programs and procedures” so crew members can “respond appropriately if interactions with passengers become confrontational.”
Airlines often prioritize de-escalation techniques to calm passengers who may be angry, suffering mental health episodes, or are intoxicated. Staff are also trained to limit supplying alcohol if a person appears intoxicated.
In some cases, it’s the passengers who lend a hand.
On the flight from Puerto Rico that diverted to Miami, a former professional MMA fighter with Jiu-jitsu experience named Josh Longood, who held down Reyes, the disruptive passenger.
“I grabbed him, controlled him, safely restrained him, put him back in the row he was in and kind of held him down,” Longood told CNN in an interview.
For more serious disruptions, including terrorism, some pilots volunteer to carry guns in the cockpit as part of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program established after 9/11. These pilots complete a week of training and a twice-a-year review “to use firearms to defend against an act of criminal violence and air piracy while attempting to gain control of an aircraft,” the TSA said. An average of a million flights a year are flown with armed pilots, according to the Air Line Pilots Association.
Some flights also include armed air marshals, trained federal agents who fly undercover to protect flights. The exact number is classified, but CNN has reported there are about 2,000 to 3,000 total.
Serious consequences for unruly passengers
Crimes aboard aircraft, like attempts to breach the cockpit, are subject to federal charges, and unruly passengers are often met at the gate by local law enforcement, or even the FBI.
“The FAA pursues legal enforcement action against any passenger who assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crewmembers, and can propose civil penalties up to $37,000 per violation,” according to the agency.
Last year, 1,621 reports of unrully passengers were reported to the agency and 130 enforcement actions were taken, totaling $2.3 million in fines.
The total is below the record number of 5,973 reported to the FAA in 2021 when travel was rebounding after the Covid-19 pandemic.
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