Utah Man Charged With Assault After Brandishing Razor on Flight, U.S. Says

Federal prosecutors said this week that a Utah man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a weapon on an airplane after holding a razor to a passenger's throat.

Law enforcement officials say that unruly behavior has become more common in the skies because of the increase in airline traffic after the coronaviruses outbreak.

Merrill Darrell Fackrell, of Syracuse, Utah, put his hand in front of the video screen of a woman sitting next to him on a flight from New York to Salt Lake City.

The woman took off her headphones and realized that Mr. Fackrell was holding something that was inches from her throat.

Mr. Fackrell yelled "She's going to be OK" and "No one needs to worry" as he stood up in the window seat. The man told the man sitting in the aisle seat to get out of there.

According to the complaint, the woman lunged for the aisle to escape when Mr. Fackrell tried to stop her.

The passenger persuaded Mr. Fackrell to put the razor on the seat next to him. Mr. Fackrell was sitting next to the passenger who grabbed the razor.

Mr. Fackrell had a long and varied conversation with the woman before he drank.

The lawyer listed for Mr. Fackrell was not reachable on Thursday.

The charges against Mr. Fackrell came as airlines faced a high number of disruptions since the start of the Pandemic. Unruliness on planes was the subject of 146 investigations. According to data from the FAA, there have been 767 such investigations in the next four years.

A California man was charged with interference with flight crew members after he was captured on video punching an American Airlines flight attendant during a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles. A woman was sentenced to 15 months in prison in May for punching a Southwest Airlines flight attendant and chipping her teeth.

It was not known how Mr. Fackrell was able to get the razor onto the plane. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Salt Lake City police and federal prosecutors are working on the case of Mr. Fackrell.

The agency is introducing new X-ray technology at more airports to improve their ability to detect items like the one used in this incident. The flight attendants and other people on the flight did a great job.