A pilot accused of threatening to shoot a commercial airline captain if they diverted their flight to give a passenger medical attention is an Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel who was relieved of command for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr. Dunn was afterward sent on orders to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, training to serve at the 603rd Air Operations Center. The Air Force has suspended his access to sensitive information and to the air operations center because of the airline incident, according to a spokesman for the Air Force in Europe.
Mr. Dunn is an Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel. His military service came to light in a Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office filing Thursday in which a judge was asked to delay his arraignment for 45 to 60 days to allow time for the U.S. military to bring Mr. Dunn back from overseas.
Phone messages and an email seeking comment from Dunn’s lawyer were not immediately returned Thursday.
Though Mr. Dunn flew for Delta Air Lines, investigators have not said on which airline or route the confrontation happened. On Wednesday, Delta said Mr. Dunn no longer worked there, and federal officials say his authority to carry a gun on board was revoked.
He is the same Jonathan Dunn who unsuccessfully sued the Pentagon to prevent the Air Force from disciplining him for refusing to receive a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, Sean P. Houlihan, a spokesperson for Air Force Reserve Command, confirmed to Military Times.
Mr. Dunn objected to the vaccine on religious grounds. He also argued that he was already protected because he contracted the virus in 2021. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in a 6‒3 decision to consider whether to block further punishment for him while his case proceeded.
Mr. Dunn had been relieved of command after contracting the coronavirus and refusing the vaccine in 2021, and faced being sent to the Individual Ready Reserve where he could not serve in any unit or be eligible for training opportunities, according to a Supreme Court filing.
Whether Mr. Dunn was punished further was unclear from court documents.
According to court records, Mr. Dunn was commissioned as an Air Force officer in 2003 and logged more than 1,400 hours flying combat missions over Afghanistan. He left active duty and joined the Air Force Reserve in 2014, serving as commander of a reserve squadron at March Air Reserve Base in California, according to the Air Force.
Mr. Dunn was indicted on Oct. 18 and charged with interfering with a flight crew over an incident that occurred during a flight in August 2022. The Transportation Department’s (TSA) inspector general says Mr. Dunn, who was the first officer or co-pilot, threatened to shoot the captain after a disagreement over diverting the flight to take care of a passenger with a medical issue.
Mr. Dunn was authorized by the TSA to carry a gun on board under a program created after the September 2001 terror attacks and designed to safeguard the cockpit from intruders.
Mr. Dunn had threatened the captain with being shot “multiple times” if they diverted, the inspector general’s office said in an email Tuesday.
Why the indictment came down more than a year after the incident was unclear. Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Felicia Martinez did not immediately return phone or email messages Thursday.
Interference with a flight crew is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. An arraignment was scheduled for Nov. 16.
The pilot’s indictment came a few days before an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot riding in the cockpit jump seat tried to shut down the engines of a Horizon Air jet in mid-flight, according to authorities. He was subdued by the captain and co-pilot and arrested after the plane diverted to Portland, Oregon.
Joseph David Emerson of Pleasant Hill, California, told police he was suffering from depression and had taken psychedelic mushrooms 48 hours before the flight. He pleaded not guilty in state court in Oregon to charges of attempted murder.
