(NEXSTAR) – The 33-year-old man who jumped from a taxiing aircraft at Los Angeles International Airport after allegedly banging on the cockpit door has been charged with a federal crime.
Louis Antonio Victoria Domínguez, of La Paz, Mexico, also told the FBI he had been smoking meth prior to the incident. He now faces up to 20 years behind bars.
Victoria Dominguez had initially traveled to the United States last Tuesday from Cabo San Lucas, according to a criminal complaint. He spent the following nights smoking meth before ultimately missing two flights to Salt Lake City.
On Friday night, he successfully boarded a SkyWest flight to SLC while “coming down” from the drugs, the complaint says. He slept briefly before takeoff, only to wake up and inform a fellow passenger that he needed to get off the flight. He then “sprinted” toward the front of the aircraft where he “began banging on the cockpit door and manipulating the locked doorknob,” an FBI affidavit states.
When he couldn’t get in, Victoria Dominguez opened the exit door, automatically deploying the emergency slide. He jumped out of the aircraft after a passenger tried restraining him, but missed the slide and landed on the tarmac as the plane was rolling.
“Once Victoria Dominguez landed on the tarmac, he began crawling away from the aircraft. His right leg appeared broken,” according to the FBI affidavit.
Victoria Dominguez was transported to a hospital for treatment.
He is now charged with “interference with flight crew members and attendants,” according to a news release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office of Los Angeles. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
In a statement issued last week, SkyWest Airlines confirmed that no other passengers were injured during the incident.
The incident also occurred after the Federal Aviation Administration announced a “zero-tolerance” policy, which imposes steeper fines and harsher penalties for unruly passengers. The policy was first announced in January.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.