Traveler with box cutter said he wanted ‘to stab someone’ on Frontier flight, feds say
A passenger is facing federal charges after authorities said he sneaked a box cutter on board a Frontier Airlines flight, prompting an emergency landing in Atlanta.
William Allen Liebisch, 42, was indicted in the Nov. 11 incident in which he brandished the retractable blade and told another passenger he was going “to stab someone on this plane,” prosecutors wrote in a criminal complaint.
He’s charged with interfering with the duties of a flight crew and carrying a weapon onto an airplane, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Thursday, Dec. 8. A magistrate judge remanded him to jail pending a trial, authorities said.
“People have the right to travel in peace and free from fear of their fellow passengers,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement. “Passengers who disrupt flights with threats of violence will quickly learn that they will be answering for their conduct in federal court.”
Liebisch, a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a passenger onboard Frontier Airlines Flight 1761 bound for Tampa, Florida, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said he went through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Cincinnati airport, where officers discovered he had a box cutter.
He was allowed to pass through after TSA officers rendered the weapon useless by removing the blade — or so they thought. As it turns out, there was a spare blade stashed in the box cutter’s handle, which Liebisch reinserted soon after the plane took off, prosecutors said.
“A passenger saw Liebisch use the box cutter to clean his nails,” according to a news release. “Another passenger reported to two flight attendants that Liebisch said that he was going to stab someone.”
The flight was diverted and made an emergency landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Two passengers helped the flight crew keep Liebisch under control until the plane landed and everyone had deplaned.
Officers with the Atlanta Police Department responded but waited at the gate to avoid agitating Liebisch, who was still on board with the two passengers who stayed behind to help. At one point, authorities said he lunged at a flight attendant with the box cutter before one of the male passengers tackled him.
“APD swiftly placed Liebisch into handcuffs and detained him,” the complaint states. “Upon a search of his person, a yellow handled DeWalt box cutter was located in his right jacket pocket.”
Authorities also found a second box cutter in his carry-on luggage.
The flight didn’t not make it to Tampa until the following day, prosecutors said.
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