Alaska Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Passenger Threatens To 'Kill Everybody'

An Alaska Airlines flight had to return to the airport after a passenger reportedly threatened to "kill everybody." The suspect was quickly subdued by fellow passengers, one of whom happened to be a law enforcement officer.

It was after Alaska Airlines Flight 422, bound for Chicago O'Hare, departed the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday, July 11, when a man reportedly stood in the aisle of the aircraft and threatened to kill all the passengers on board.

"I will kill everybody," the man can be heard saying in a video footage of the event. "Die in the name of Jesus!"

In an email to The Seattle Times, Alaska Airlines' external communications manager, Ray Lane, said the man became "physically aggressive" and "extremely belligerent."

The threat did not last long as the flight crew and two passengers, including a police officer who happened to be on the flight, were quickly able to subdue the man.

Despite the quick de-escalation of the incident, the flight still had to make an emergency landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, from where it departed just about 20 minutes earlier.

After landing, the man was taken into custody by Port of Seattle Police and booked into King County Jail.

The man, later identified by KOMO News as 30-year-old Michael Ney Berry of Kirkland, was charged with felony assaults and was being held in lieu of a $100,000 bond.

It was not known as to why the made the threat. Investigations into the incident were ongoing.

Following the incident, the flight had to be canceled and hence the other passengers were all booked for another flight to Chicago.

Earlier in the year, chaos ensued aboard a United Express flight, bound for Newark from Dulles International Airport, after a passenger attempted to enter the cockpit when the aircraft was close to touchdown. He then attacked a flight attendant who tried to intervene but, just like in the Alaska Airlines incident, it was the passengers who were able to stop the attack.

A Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said there are many layers of security on flights but, the greatest layer is the "passengers themselves."