Mexico’s National Guard on Sunday detained a man who tried to hijack a plane and divert a domestic Mexican flight to the United States.
Mexico’s secretary of security and citizen protection said the passenger attacked a flight attendant on Volaris Flight 3041 from Guanajuato to Tijuana and tried to enter the cockpit. Crew members subdued the man and the pilot sent an alert code to land at Guadalajara International Airport, where the attacker was handed over to authorities.
Volaris said in a statement that its crew “acted in accordance with established safety procedures and protocol.” The Mexican airline said all passengers and crew members were safe and the board continued on to its destination.
The detained 31-year-old man is a Mexican national and was travelling with his wife and two children, officials said. He told airline officials that a close relative had been kidnapped and threatened that he would die if the man and his family travelled to Tijuana. He decided to hijack the plane as a “gesture of desperation,” he said.
