“Gonna Hijack This Plane”: The Text That Turned a Las Vegas Redeye Around

LAS VEGAS

The text said he was going to hijack the plane.

United Airlines Flight 1681 had been in the air only minutes on Saturday night — a Boeing 737 MAX 8 carrying 150 passengers and six crew members from Harry Reid International Airport to Newark — when a flight attendant saw a passenger typing messages about taking control of the aircraft, according to authorities and a criminal complaint filed in the case.

The flight attendant did not confront him. Following security protocol, the crew member alerted the cockpit, and the pilots locked down the flight deck and turned the jet around. The man, police say, never knew any of it was happening.

“The flight attendant saw him texting that he was going to hijack the aircraft. They called me. We went into lockdown, and we returned to Vegas,” the captain told air traffic controllers — in audio reported by CBS News — as the plane reversed course. Asked whether the passenger had been restrained, the pilot explained there was no need: “No restraint. Passenger is compliant ’cause he’s unaware.”

What the complaint says he wrote

According to the criminal complaint, reported by the Associated Press, 25-year-old Dante Milne wrote on his mobile device that he was “gonna hijack this” plane — the message included an expletive — and that he would “crash ur row only.”

The complaint does not say how the messages were transmitted or who they were meant for. Authorities have not publicly established a motive, and nothing in the reporting indicates Milne made any physical move toward the cockpit. He is accused of writing a threat, not of attempting one — and he has not been convicted of anything.

Forty-four minutes out and back

FlightAware tracking data tells the rest of the story. Flight 1681 pushed back from its Las Vegas gate at 10:37 p.m. Saturday and took off at 10:52 p.m., climbing east into Arizona airspace. The crew declared an emergency and turned back at about 11:05 p.m.

Getting down took longer than getting up. The jet was still loaded with fuel for a cross-country flight — “grossly overweight” for landing, the pilot told controllers in the same audio — so it circled twice to burn fuel before touching down at 11:36 p.m. It was back at a gate by 11:42 p.m. Nobody was injured.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers met the aircraft and detained Milne without incident, police said. All 150 passengers were taken off the plane, and the aircraft was put through a full security inspection.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the flight “returned safely to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Saturday, Oct. 24, after the crew reported a passenger disturbance,” and that the agency will investigate.

Arrested Saturday, in court Tuesday

Police identified Milne publicly on Monday. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a single felony charge: making threats or conveying false information regarding an act of terrorism. Under Nevada law, the charge carries a potential sentence of one to 20 years if he is convicted.

Milne posted a $10,000 bond and was released. His first court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27 — today. It was not immediately clear whether he has a lawyer who can speak for him.

United, for its part, said in a short statement: “United flight 1681 from Las Vegas to Newark on Saturday, Oct. 24, safely returned to Las Vegas to address a potential security concern. The flight was delayed overnight due to crew timeout, and departed for Newark on Sunday morning.”

The delay was real. With the crew out of legal duty time, the passengers spent the night in Las Vegas. The same plane finally left Sunday morning and reached Newark at 3:06 p.m. Eastern — roughly eight and a half hours after it was supposed to land.

— Previously’s Take: The most striking thing about Saturday night is how quiet it was. No confrontation in the aisle, no announcement to the cabin, no passenger heroics — a flight attendant read a screen, made one call, and a fully loaded jet crossed into Arizona, turned around and came home while the man accused of causing it all sat there texting, unaware. Whatever the messages turn out to mean in court, the system around them worked exactly the way it is supposed to: somebody saw something, said something, and 156 people spent an inconvenient night in Las Vegas instead of living through the alternative.