United Flight 2174 left Newark on Monday night with 46 passengers and six crew members. During the descent into New Orleans, a passenger allegedly told the crew he had a bomb and tried to get into the cockpit. The pilots set the transponder to 7500 — the hijack code — and sent an “attempted Level 4” alert. The plane landed safely, and deputies arrested Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34. He is charged with communicating false information; no bomb was reported found.
Flight 2174 is the routine evening run from Newark Liberty International Airport to New Orleans, and Monday’s departure looked like every other one: a Boeing 737 MAX 9 off the ground at 9:26 p.m. Eastern. The trouble came late, on the way down. According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, a passenger began acting irrationally, told crew members he had a bomb on board, and moved on the cockpit.
The pilots answered with the one signal that needs no translation. They set the jet’s transponder to 7500 — the code that silently tells air traffic control an aircraft is being hijacked — as it descended through 20,000 feet. Simple Flying reported the crew also messaged other United aircraft over the ACARS network, and the message said: “We had an attempted level four, no other details are known at this time.” Level 4 is the top of the threat scale, reserved for an attempted or actual breach of the cockpit.
Inside the cabin, the crew persuaded the man to move to the back of the plane, and he sat there with crew members for the rest of the descent. Air traffic control audio reviewed by the New York Post described a man who spoke almost no English, dressed in black, carrying the backpack he allegedly said held the bomb.
The jet touched down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport just after 11 p.m. local time and was parked away from the terminal. Passengers were taken inside, the pilots stayed behind the locked cockpit door until law enforcement boarded, and nobody was hurt.
In a statement, United said: “United flight 2174 from Newark to New Orleans landed safely following a disruptive incident involving a passenger onboard. Law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival.” The airline pointed further questions to local authorities, and the Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed it will investigate the incident.
Video: WWL-TV (CBS New Orleans) — “Bomb threat on flight from Newark ends with arrest at MSY, officials say.”
The man in custody
Deputies arrested Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, a Honduran national the sheriff’s office said was living in the Bronx. FOX 8 and NOLA.com reported he was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing, and held without bond. The charges are allegations, and he has not been convicted of anything. The booking charge is also the official answer to the bomb claim: deputies charged him with passing information they say was false, and no device was reported found on the aircraft.
What Homeland Security says about him
The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Border Patrol first apprehended Gomez-Alberto after he entered the United States illegally near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011, and again near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014 — and that he was removed from the country after both. Border Patrol arrested him a third time in 2019, after an attempted entry near San Ysidro, California. ICE released him in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release while removal proceedings were pending.
On Tuesday, ICE lodged a detainer for him with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. “On November 10, 2026, ICE lodged a detainer for Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, with Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after he attempted to gain entry to the cockpit during a flight,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News. The department said his criminal history includes a felony bomb threat, terroristic-threat offenses and disorderly conduct.
The exposure does not stop at the state charges. Conveying a false bomb threat against an aircraft is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and Simple Flying reported federal charges are possible on top of the Jefferson Parish counts.
The second United scare in a month
This is the second United flight in three weeks to end with a passenger in handcuffs over a threat made on board. On October 24, a Las Vegas–to–Newark redeye turned back minutes after takeoff after a flight attendant spotted a passenger texting that he would hijack the plane; that man was charged with conveying false information about an act of terrorism. The shape of both nights is the same: the threat was words, and the response was total — a locked door, a silent code, and officers waiting on the ground.
For the 46 passengers in the cabin Monday night, the flight still ended where it was supposed to: at the gate in New Orleans, with a story none of them would have chosen.
Sources · 6 sources
- Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (as reported by FOX 8 WVUE and NOLA.com) — the passenger’s identity, the bomb claim, the arrest, and the booking charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing; held without bond at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center
- United Airlines — statement that Flight 2174 landed safely following a disruptive incident involving a passenger onboard and that law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival; 46 passengers and six crew aboard a Boeing 737 MAX 9
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security (statement to Fox News) — Border Patrol apprehensions in 2011, 2014 and 2019, two removals, the January 2020 release ordered by an immigration judge, the ICE detainer lodged November 10, and his prior criminal history
- Simple Flying — United Pilots Squawk Hijack Code As Passenger Tries To Storm Cockpit, Says He Has A Bomb: the 9:26 p.m. departure and 11:07 p.m. touchdown on flight-tracking data, the 7500 squawk at 20,000 feet, the ACARS attempted-level-four message, the FAA investigation, and possible federal charges
- New York Post — United flight sends out hijack alert after passenger claiming to have bomb attempts to storm cockpit: air traffic control audio describing the passenger, and the crew moving him to the rear of the aircraft
- WWL-TV — Bomb threat on flight from Newark ends with arrest at MSY, officials say (video report embedded in this story)
