Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto was arrested after a United Airlines hijacking scare on United Airlines Flight 2174, which landed in New Orleans on Monday night. Authorities say he allegedly claimed he had a bomb and tried to enter the cockpit before the flight reached Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
The arrest by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office followed a reported hijacking alert and a passenger disturbance on a flight bound from New Jersey to New Orleans. United Airlines said the plane landed safely.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest
Gomez-Alberto was taken into custody after the aircraft landed, turning what began in the cabin into a ground arrest at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The allegation that he claimed to have a bomb and moved toward the cockpit is the clearest account of why pilots treated the disturbance as a hijacking event.
Local reporting said he was booked on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing. DHS separately listed bomb threat, terroristic threat and disorderly conduct offenses in its statement.
DHS account of prior deportations
The Department of Homeland Security said Gomez-Alberto had been deported from the United States twice before the flight disturbance. DHS said Border Patrol apprehended him after he illegally entered the United States near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011, and again near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014; DHS said he was removed after both encounters.
DHS also said Border Patrol arrested him again after an attempted illegal entry near San Ysidro, California, in 2019. After that encounter, ICE released him from custody in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings.
ICE detainer after the flight
On November 10, 2026, ICE lodged a detainer for Gomez-Alberto with Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office after he attempted to gain entry to the cockpit during the flight. A DHS spokesperson said, “On November 10, 2026, ICE lodged a detainer for Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, with Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after he attempted to gain entry to the cockpit during a flight,” in a statement to.
For passengers on United Airlines Flight 2174, the immediate result is that the disturbance ended on the ground, with the arrest and immigration detainer now running alongside the local case. The next court step was not set out in the available information, but the sequence from cabin disturbance to arrest now sits on two tracks: local criminal charges and ICE custody action.
