A Delta Airlines co-pilot was reportedly taken off a plane that had just landed at SFO on Saturday night by officers from multiple agencies, and he was reportedly arrested on charges relating to child sexual abuse material.
The strange incident happened aboard Delta Flight 2809 from Minneapolis, which had just touched down at SFO at 9:35 pm Saturday. As the Chronicle reports via a passenger who was on the flight, sitting in first class, "A group of people with badges, guns, and different agency vests/markings were pushing their way up through the aisle to the cockpit." And they then "stormed the cockpit, cuffed the co-pilot, arrested him, walked him down the aisle, and ushered him off the plane."
The various officers were from the Department of Homeland Security, the San Francisco Police Department, and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office. DHS has since confirmed that they were assisting "on an arrest warrant led by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office," in a statement to KTVU.
The Associated Press has now confirmed that the investigation in Contra Costa County was related to child sexual abuse material, and Delta Airlines has not yet commented on the arrest.
Update: The pilot has been identified as 34-year-old Rustom Bhagwagar of Florida. The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, per the Chronicle, that they have been pursuing a case against Bhagwagar since April "after receiving a report of sex crimes against a child."
The first-class passenger who spoke to the Chronicle said that after the pilot had been taken off the plane, one of the agents returned to the cockpit to collect his belongings.
The airline blog View From the Wing published a photo of one of the other pilots looking on in disbelief and a brief video taken by one of the first-class passengers.
One of the other pilots was reportedly overheard saying "he had no idea what just happened" after the arrest.
This is a developing story.
Photo by Lukas Souza
