Delta Passengers Stunned As Pilot Hauled Off Plane On Child Porn Charges

Passengers aboard a Delta Airlines flight had quite a jaw-dropping conclusion to their journey on Saturday night, as federal agents boarded their plane upon landing, handcuffed the co-pilot and marched him off the jet — with Fox News reporting that he faces charges of possessing child sexual abuse material. In a terrific comic twist, one passenger on the San Francisco-bound jet was sent into a “rage” as she assumed she’d witnessed an ICE apprehension.   

Just after Delta Flight 2809 from Minneapolis reached its SFO gate at 9:35 pm, the captain turned off the seat belt sign and passengers began to gather their belongings. That’s when the drama unfolded. 

“A group of people with badges, guns, and different agency vests/markings were pushing their way up through the aisle to the cockpit,” passenger Sarah Christianson told the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she’d counted at least 10 law enforcement officers who “stormed the cockpit, cuffed the co-pilot, arrested him, walked him down the aisle, and ushered him off the plane through the cabin doors located between first and coach…[it was] shocking and unnerving.” 

After the arrest was made, another group of law enforcement officers came aboard to sweep up the co-pilot’s possessions. Citing a senior federal source, Fox News reported that the co-pilot was arrested on charges relating to “child sexual abuse material,” with Homeland Security Investigations agents making the collar. His name has yet to be released, and Delta has not made a statement.

Delta Airlines pilot ARRESTED as plane lands in San Francisco

10 officers RAID cockpit ‘without warning’

Passengers stunned as pilot hauled off the jet pic.twitter.com/Dqg0Hjo60j

— RT (@RT_com) July 27, 2025

Hilariously, passenger Sarah Christensen assumed she witnessed the apprehension of an illegal immigrant who’d been at the controls in the cockpit. Of course, with the plane landing in hard-left San Francisco, she was naturally angry about it. “It was rage-inducing to see someone being disappeared right in front of me,” she told the Chronicle. 

The pilot told inquiring parties on the plane that he had “no idea what happened” to his co-pilot. “Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t given a heads-up that this was happening, because that would have also tipped his colleague in the cockpit with him,” observed Gary Leff at View from the Wing. 

The bizarre scene at SFO capped off a bad week for Delta pilots — and the carrier’s reputation. On Tuesday morning, a Delta flight from Stockholm to New York’s JFK Airport was cancelled after its female US pilot failed a breathalyzer test. Delta now owes each passenger $705 — upwards of $139,500 for the 198-seat jet, reports View From The Wing. That’s before the cost of lodging and meals.  Believe it or not, last fall, two flight attendants on the very same route were arrested after they failed breathalyzer tests.