Passenger Angry Over Phone Charger Led To Diverted Flight: DOJ

SEATTLE — A young woman is facing a federal charge after she became belligerent about a malfunctioning seat charger on an American Airlines flight, shoved crew members and pounded on the door of the cockpit, prosecutors alleged Thursday. The incident prompted the pilot to activate a lockdown and change course for an unplanned landing in Seattle on Wednesday morning.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Seattle, Waka Suzuki, 26, boarded Flight 60 with her mother at Narita International Airport in Japan, bound for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, with plans to continue to Cancun, Mexico.

Three or four hours into the flight over the Pacific Ocean, prosecutors said, Suzuki asked for help charging her phone from a flight attendant who also spoke Japanese. As the phone failed to charge for another hour, she became increasingly "hostile and belligerent" and began yelling at the flight crew, according to court filings.

Unsatisfied with further attempts to help, prosecutors said, she began to run toward the front of the plane. As one attendant tried to stop Suzuki, she shoved them and stomped on their foot, then continued to run toward the cockpit, the crew reported. Once she reached the door, she began pounding on it and yelling for help charging her phone, prosecutors said.

Flight attendants told investigators that they made several more attempts to calm the woman down, but she continued to scream and refused to comply with instructions. The pilot notified the Federal Aviation Administration of a threat on board, activated a "level three" lockdown and changed course for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

According to charging documents, crew members placed Suzuki in flex cuffs after she assaulted a second flight attendant. The plane landed in Seattle at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, where officers from the Port of Seattle Police Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection were waiting. Officers said the woman refused to exit the plane for nearly 30 minutes.

In an interview inside the airport, customs officials said, Suzuki admitted that she became angry about the faulty charger, describing the flight attendants as rude and dismissive, and knocked on the cockpit door looking for help. Investigators said she also told them a member of the flight crew spat on her, and others pushed her to the ground, leading her to punch one and shove another. When asked if she had taken medication or was intoxicated, Suzuki replied that she only takes vitamins and drank coffee and orange juice during the flight.

She appeared before a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday and was charged with one count of interference with flight crew members and attendants.