Airlines are seeing violence on a regular. Michael Brandon Demarre of Portland was on Delta Air Lines flight bound for Portland from Salt Lake City when he experienced a temper tantrum due to him wanting to make a statement about COVID-19 vaccines. Demarre told police he tried to push the handle so passengers would videotape him and he’d have “the opportunity to share his thoughts on COVID-19 vaccines,” the agent wrote in the affidavit.
Michael Brandon Demarre, 32, removed the plastic covering of the emergency exit handle on the Delta Airlines flight and pulled on the handle “with his full body weight,” according to an affidavit FBI special agent Adam Hoover filed in support of the arrest warrant. A flight attendant demanded that Demarre stop touching the handle, and he complied, according to the affidavit. The crew asked four passengers to watch him and stop him from going near the emergency exits again. People on the plane said they heard “a loud air swooshing as the defendant yanked on the door repeatedly,” Assistant U.S. Attorney. Mira R. Chernick told the U.S. District Court judge during Monday’s hearing in Portland. The pilot reported that an alert light went on in the plane’s cockpit. The man was directed to the back of the plane, where he was seated and physically restrained, the affidavit says.
Port of Portland Police detained him when the plane landed, and told police that he “engaged the emergency exit door handle so other passengers would video him, thereby giving him the opportunity to share his thoughts on COVID-19 vaccines,” according to the affidavit.
He was charged with interference and attempted interference with flight crew and attendants and threats to interfere with flight crew and attendants. Demarre made an initial appearance in federal court on Monday, and was ordered detained pending further court proceedings
The prosecutor said witnesses reported that the man also exhibited symptoms of mental health issues on the plane, including cry laughing and staring into space. Assistant federal public defender Gerald Needham called the allegations “out of character” for his client. U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta ordered the man to remain in custody so a mental health evaluation can be done.
