A Leominster man charged with attempting to open an airliner’s emergency door on a cross-country flight last weekend and trying to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon was remanded to custody by a federal district court judge Thursday to await trial.
Judge Judith G. Dein ordered the state to evaluate the mental status of Francisco Severo Torres, 33 while he is detained.
After the judge ordered that he be held, Torres was led out of the courtroom while calling out, “My name’s still Baltazar, I was renamed by God.”
During the hearing, Torres asked to be released to Leominster and promised that he would return and comply with court orders.
According to the criminal complaint charging him with a felony ‒ attempted interference and interference with a flight crew using a dangerous weapon ‒ Torres told police he tried to open the door in an attempt to jump from the airplane. He indicated to authorities during his post-arrest interview that he realized opening the door would be deadly for other passengers.
If convicted, Torres could be sentenced to life in prison.
Torres was restrained by several passengers and held until the plane, United Airlines Flight 2609, landed at Logan Airport in Boston.
The flight originated in Los Angeles, and Torres was assigned seat 20E. About 45 minutes out from Boston, a cockpit alarm alerted the crew that one of the doors between first class and coach had been disarmed. The crew investigated and found the door handle had been moved a quarter of the way to open, and the slide had been disarmed.
Several passengers interviewed following the incident by Boston Police Detective Thomas Menino Jr., assigned to the FBI Task Force, told authorities that Torres seemed agitated and was pacing during a portion of the flight. Passengers also indicated they saw him holding a shiny object.
The object was the broken handle of a metal spoon that Torres was seen thrusting at one of the flight attendants, hitting the attendant three times in the neck and chest area.
The crew told the captain that Torres was a threat, and the plane should be landed as soon as possible, authorities said.
In video taken by a passenger, an agitated Torres can be heard threatening to kill people and promising a bloodbath.
“I will kill every man on this plane,” he says.
He also asks where the pilots were diverting the plane.
“Because wherever it is, there’s going to be a bloodbath everywhere,” he says in the video.
Passengers were interviewed by police upon landing.
“Everything just exploded in a few seconds,” said Simik Ghookasian, one of the passengers who helped restrain the suspect.
Torres told investigators that he went into the airplane’s bathroom and broke a spoon in half to make a weapon, prosecutors said in court documents.
United Airlines said no one was injured.
In the complaint filed in federal court, Torres told police he tried to open the airplane door by moving the handle. Attendants also found the slide attached to the door had been disarmed.
Cabin pressure during flight prevents airplane doors from opening.
In the complaint, the flight attendants said they had confronted Torres, who grew agitated and attempted to stab one of them. Passengers rushed to their aid and restrained Torres.
After his arrest, Torres told police he believed one of the flight attendants was trying to kill him and he retailed with the broken spoon in self-defense.
Torres has struggled with mental health issues in the past, according to federal court documents and a local police chief who says officers have dealt with him several times since 2014. Sometimes, neighbors called police after spotting him outside his house, scantily clothed.
He was charged in 2017 involving a domestic incident with his mother but those charges were dropped, Leominster Police Chief Aaron Kennedy told the Associated Press.
Kennedy said police were called to a barbershop on Feb. 26 in town where Torres was saying some of “the same rhetoric you heard on the airplane.” But it wasn’t until police saw the video from the flight last weekend that they realized it was the same person.