A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Minneapolis took an unscheduled detour to Madison, Wisconsin, late Friday after a passenger decided that the cockpit looked like a fun place to visit. The flight, carrying 147 passengers and six crew members, was diverted to Dane County Regional Airport, where local law enforcement and the FBI were waiting to greet the would-be cockpit explorer.
The unruly passenger was detained by the sheriff's office, and after a brief pause - presumably for paperwork and awkward questions - the flight continued on to Minneapolis, arriving early Saturday morning. No injuries were reported, which is more than can be said for the passenger's travel plans.
In air traffic communications obtained by NBC News, a crew member provided a play-by-play of the situation, noting that the passenger was never handcuffed but was eventually subdued after multiple attempts to breach the cockpit. "I believe at this point he is seated in a seat and flanked with law enforcement officers on either side," the crew member said, describing what sounds like an exceptionally well-supervised middle seat.
A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed that Flight 2005 "landed safely in Madison … to address a security concern with an unruly passenger." The FBI in Milwaukee confirmed they were notified and responded, though they didn't elaborate on whether the passenger had a particular destination in mind or just really wanted to see what all the buttons do.
While aircraft hijackings have been rare in the US since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the period between 1968 and 1972 - known as hijacking's "golden age" - saw more than 130 US planes diverted, many of them with a one-way ticket to Cuba. This passenger, by contrast, only made it to Wisconsin.