Airline Passenger Faces Federal Charge For Allegedly Attempting To Open Aircraft Door During Flight

An Alaska Airlines passenger was charged in federal court for allegedly trying to open the door of an aircraft mid-flight.

The unruly passenger was accused of saying, “The wings have disappeared. We’re all going to die,” according to The Independent.

“Kassian William Fredericks was charged Tuesday in a federal indictment with one count of interference with the flight crew,” NBC News stated.

The alleged incident happened on December 10th during a flight from Deadhorse, Alaska, to Anchorage.

Passenger Charged After Attempting to Open Plane Door at 18,000 Feet and Saying, ‘We’re All Going to Die’ https://t.co/NJrzY0vtAP

— People (@people) December 18, 2025

NBC News shared additional details:

A passenger said that as he was leaving the bathroom, he saw Fredericks “aggressively trying to open the rear cabin door,” according to an affidavit for a criminal complaint. The passenger said that Fredericks had moved the arm of the cabin door and that he grabbed Fredericks to stop him. The man then yelled for other passengers to help, the affidavit says.

Fredericks “was so strong [that] it took him and the other two male passengers to restrain him and sit him down,” the filing says, quoting the man.

According to the filing, Fredericks kept trying to get up, kept repeating that he needed to call his mother and told the man that he thought he was overdosing. When the man asked Fredericks why he was trying to open the door, he said he needed “air and to get out of here.”

At one point, Fredericks asked the man for a cigarette and asked how he could break the window of the plane, prosecutors say.

The affidavit also alleged Fredericks said “stop the plane, stop the plane” before the incident, The Independent noted.

Another passenger asked Fredericks if he was okay, and he replied, “They’re flying the plane from back here,” according to the affidavit.

More from The Independent:

The plane was flying from Deadhorse, deep in oil country, to Anchorage, the affidavit goes on. One passenger later told police that if there hadn’t been so many North Slope roughnecks aboard, “who were bigger in stature [and] able to help… things could have been a lot worse.”

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In an email on Wednesday, federal defender Jane Imholte, Fredericks’s court-appointed lawyer, said, “Mr. Fredericks is presumed innocent, like any other person accused of a crime.”

Fredericks has been banned from flying Alaska Airlines, a spokesperson for the carrier told The Independent.

“We thank our crew for their professionalism in handling this situation, and we apologize to our guests for any concern this incident caused.,” the spokesperson said.

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