Airline Passenger Faces Federal Charges After Starting Fire In Lavatory

DENVER (CBS4) - A Pennsylvania man who started a fire in an airliner's bathroom earlier this week appeared before a judge in Denver Friday. He faces federal aircraft sabotage charges.

Robert Allen Vincent was taken into custody, first by Denver Police Department officers and ultimately by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, at Denver International Airport on Wednesday.

Delta Airlines flight 1706 had left Los Angeles bound for Detroit, but diverted while over Wyoming after Allen locked himself in a rear lavatory and set off a smoke alarm.

Passengers and crew, according to the FBI's documentation, noticed Allen acting erratically before he boarded. After liftoff, flight attendants reported that Allen refused to keep his seat, walked the length of the 737's cabin looking at passengers and speaking in fragmented sentences. Allen was estimated to have changed seats 12 times and refused to employ social distancing guidelines with other passengers as instructed by the crew.

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Flight attendants expressed concern with the way Allen looked at an exit door and asked to be seated next to it.

Allen eventually locked himself in the lavatory. The smoke alarm sounded after he had been inside for 15 minutes, per witness estimates.

Allen came out of the bathroom wearing an oxygen mask.

A flight attendant found burning embers in a toilet seat cover compartment and used a fire extinguisher to put them out.

Allen hands were then bound with zip-ties and placed in the last row of seats as the plane re-routed to Denver.

Later that same day, FBI investigators found a cigarette lighter inside Allen's shopping bag, along with prescription medications for anxiety, depression, hypertension and insomnia. Allen said he had been diagnosed with emotional disorders.

Allen also told FBI investigators had left Hawaii and was worried that other passengers on the plane were working for a local drug dealer who made him fear for his life.

Wednesday's Delta flight continued on to Detroit aboard another plane.