ICE lodges detainer against man charged in United cockpit case

Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Tuesday against a 34-year-old Honduran man charged in Louisiana after the crew of a United Airlines flight from Newark transmitted the hijacking transponder code and was met by sheriff's deputies in New Orleans the night before.

Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said. Deputies boarded United Airlines Flight 2174 and arrested him after it reached Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport late on November 9. He is being held without bond.

The Department of Homeland Security, which confirmed the arrest to Fox News, listed a different set of offenses: bomb threat, terroristic threat and disorderly conduct. Its statement described an immigration detainer rather than a federal criminal charge. The department did not explain the difference between its list and the parish booking.

The flight into New Orleans

Flight 2174 is a regular evening service between Newark Liberty International Airport and New Orleans. The Boeing 737 MAX 9 operating it left Newark at 9:27 p.m. Eastern on Monday, November 9, and landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport at 11:07 p.m. Central, according to FlightAware.

The pilots selected the 7500 transponder code as the jet descended through 20,000 feet, and the crew then reported that a male passenger was carrying a backpack he claimed held a bomb.

Cabin crew persuaded the man to the rear of the aircraft, where he sat with crew members while the pilots stayed locked in the cockpit. Air traffic control audio reviewed by the aviation content creator Aaron Rheins indicated the passenger had claimed to have a bomb in his backpack, TMZ reported. Local authorities can be heard on the audio saying he had changed into all black, the New York Post reported.

The crew also warned other United aircraft through ACARS, the datalink system that carries text messages between planes and the ground, telling them the flight had an attempted Level 4 and that no other details were known. US airlines and authorities grade onboard threats from Level 1 to Level 4. Level 1 covers verbal disruption; Level 4 means an attempted or actual breach of the flight deck.

What the airline said

United identified the aircraft as a Boeing 737 MAX 9 carrying 46 passengers and six crew members, and referred further questions about the incident to local authorities.

United flight 2174 from Newark to New Orleans landed safely following a disruptive incident involving a passenger onboard. Law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival.

Passengers left the aircraft after it taxied to its gate and were escorted to the terminal. Deputies then boarded and arrested Gomez-Alberto without further incident before taking him to the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.

No injuries were reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the incident. The Daily Mail reported that the pilots issued a hijacking alert after the passenger claimed to have a bomb.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, which first reported that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed the arrest and the man's immigration history. The flight tracking platform FlightDeck flagged the emergency on X while the jet was still airborne, noting the 7500 squawk and then reporting the attempted cockpit breach.

The detainer and the statement

ICE lodged the detainer with the sheriff's office on November 10, the day after the flight, DHS said. The department also said Gomez-Alberto was accused of attempting to enter the cockpit, a point United's statement did not address, and that he had crossed or tried to cross the border illegally three times.

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

The spokesperson's statement closed by saying that criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States under President Trump and Secretary Mullin. It did not address the bomb claim or the transponder code.

The sheriff's office identified Gomez-Alberto as a 34-year-old resident of New York.

Three crossings, two removals

Border Patrol apprehended Gomez-Alberto after he entered the United States illegally near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011, and again near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014, and he was removed from the country following both encounters, according to the account DHS gave to Fox News.

Border Patrol arrested him a third time in 2019, after an attempted illegal entry near San Ysidro, California. ICE released him from custody in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings. He was not removed after that arrest, and DHS did not say whether the proceedings ever concluded.

Open questions in the case

Authorities have not released details about the alleged bomb or disclosed whether any explosive device was found aboard the aircraft. United's statement did not mention the cockpit or the backpack. No account of what Gomez-Alberto told deputies has been made public, and no lawyer has been named for him.

No court date has been announced, and DHS did not say whether federal prosecutors were reviewing the case. The department's statement dealt with the detainer and his immigration history, not with the evidence behind the charges the parish booked him on.

Hijack code and prior scare

Squawk codes are four-digit numbers that pilots enter into an aircraft transponder to communicate with air traffic control. 7700 signals a general emergency and 7600 a radio failure. 7500 signals unlawful interference, which includes hijacking, and pilots can select it without saying a word on the radio, so controllers learn of a threat while the person behind it does not.

The jet operating the flight was registered N17422.

A United Boeing 737 MAX 8 flying from Las Vegas to Newark returned to Harry Reid International Airport on Oct. 24 after a flight attendant spotted a passenger texting about a hijacking, and police later arrested the man. The Aviation Hub described the New Orleans episode as the second United security scare in weeks.

The New Orleans flight was not diverted, and by the time it taxied to its gate the passenger was sitting at the back of the cabin with crew members.

Gomez-Alberto remains in custody in Jefferson Parish, with the ICE detainer attached to his booking. The sheriff's office has described two charges against him in connection with the flight, both filed in Louisiana.

The FAA has not said when it will finish its review. DHS has not said whether it will seek to remove Gomez-Alberto a third time, and the department described no step beyond the detainer it filed on Tuesday.