A frightening incident happened onboard a United Express flight from Washington Dulles to Newark International. On January 9th, a man allegedly stormed the aircraft's cockpit, attacked a flight attendant and injured six police officers.

Frightening incident

NBC New York reports that a passenger named Matthew Dingley started to become unhinged just as flight UA4965 was about to land. He soon got out of his seat and charged towards the Embraer E145's cockpit.

Mike Egbert was sitting in the second row on this flight and witnessed the situation unfold.

"This guy was in a full sprint, right up to the cockpit, hits the cockpit, starts banging on it,"

Thereafter, a flight attendant tried to stop the passenger from disrupting the flight. However, Egbert shared that the employee was beaten by the much larger man.

"[She was] a slight woman, petite, and this guy was clocking her," the eyewitness said.

Briefly under control

While the woman was being attacked, Egbert intervened, along with others on the flight. One of the people that stepped in thankfully had experience in law enforcement. Therefore, the situation was brought under control, for a moment.

Law enforcement officers waited for Dingley at Newark. Once he left the plane after landing, he then stormed at the officers on the ground outside the airport's Terminal C. Port Authority Police shared that one of the officers fell down the aircraft's stairs. Subsequently, the officer has suffered from four broken ribs due to the attack.

Egbert then stated that the rampager picked up and threw another officer. Ultimately, knowing what the unhinged passenger was capable of, Egbert is glad that he didn't get into the cockpit.

The rage continues

Altogether, six officers were injured in the incident. However, they are all expected to recover. The flight attendant that was attacked was taken to a hospital to receive care for her injuries. She has now been released from care, and has been called a hero by Egbert after witnessing her attempt at calming the situation down.

This isn't the first time that Dingley has been in trouble for his erratic behavior. The 28-year old was arrested four years ago following a police chase in North Carolina.

He was also found guilty of driving while intoxicated In New York in 2017. Dingley now faces a range of charges, including assault and resisting arrest. 

We wish all of those hurt in the incident a speedy recovery.

Simple Flying reached out to United Airlines for comment on the incident but did not hear back before publication. We will update the article with any further comment.

What are your thoughts on this mid-flight incident? Let us know what you think of the situation in the comment section.