Matthew Dingley Wynantsville, NY man arrested after attempting to storm United Airlines cockpit, injures flight attendant and 6 Port Authority officers. History of arrests.
So much for having a pleasant flight. An airline passenger has been arrested after attempting to storm a plane’s cockpit and assaulting a flight attendant as well as injuring six Port Authority transit officers.
The incident which occurred on January 9 led to fellow passenger’s fearing for their lives after upstate New York man, Matthew Dingley allegedly attempting to make his way into a United Airlines Express cockpit as the plane started its descent into Newark Airport.
Attempts to contain Dingley led to a flight attendant and six law enforcement agents being injured in an ensuing scuffle upon the plane landing, the Daily Voice reports.
Dingley of Wynantsville, NY, is said to have started acting erratically during United Airlines Flight 4965 before attempting to storm the cockpit as the plane which had taken off from Washington’s Dulles International neared its destination.
‘This guy was in a full sprint, right up to the cockpit, hits the cockpit, starts banging on it,’ Mike Egbert who was on the flight told NBC New York. According to the passenger, upon a flight attendant attempting to intervene, Dingley began to attack her.
Egbert described the flight attendant as, ‘A slight woman, petite, and this guy was clocking her.’
Another passenger on the plane apparently had law enforcement experience and was able to help get the situation under control.
But it didn’t end there.
History of arrests and deranged behavior:
As Port Authority Police made to take Dingley into custody the seemingly disturbed man began attacking officers.
“He picks up a police officer, throws the police officer…his back,” Egbert explained. “If he did actually get into that cockpit lord knows what would have happened.”
The flight attendant was taken to a nearby hospital, although she has since been released. Six Port Authority Officers were injured during the incident, although they are reportedly expected to recover.
Dingley has been charged with aggravated assault, criminal trespassing, resisting arrest and interfering with transportation, NJ.com reports.
He has been placed in Essex County Correctional Facility pending hearings.
Dingley was previously arrested in 2016 in North Carolina after fleeing from police in a stolen car chase and jailed for about a year, inmate records show. The year after, he was convicted of driving while intoxicated in upstate New York after he crashed his car on the highway.
