United Passenger Beats Deaf Man in Violent, Unprovoked Attack

A deaf, non-verbal man aboard a United Airlines flight suffered a horrifying attack at the hands of a fellow passenger who allegedly pummeled him bloody until a good Samaritan intervened. The assault occurred just two hours into a flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles in Virginia on Monday.

The FBI and FAA are currently investigating the incident, in which the suspect, Everett Chad Nelson, 44, was said to have gotten up to use the bathroom. Nelson was reportedly walking back to his seat when he randomly attacked the victim, who was sitting in a window seat in a different row.

Witness Sandhya Gupta, who was one of 82 passengers and six crew members aboard the flight, later described the terrifying ordeal to San Fransisco's ABC 7 News. Gupta was sleeping when she says she was woken by "blood-curdling screams," and then saw Nelson attacking the other passenger just one row in front of her.

"He was just very violently and very aggressively just pummeling the guy who was in the window seat who was in front of me and it was vicious," Gupta recalled. "This wasn't like a bar room, I'm going to throw a couple of punches around, I mean this was vicious."

Citing an FBI affidavit, CBS News reports that Nelson viciously beat the defenseless victim for a full minute until another passenger pulled him off the man.  

"Basically kind of like wrapped this guy in sort of like a hug and the assailant just, it was the weirdest thing, he just went limp," Gupta explained. 'This doctor was just like trying to stop the bleeding, his face was just a mess. It was awful. There was blood spatter on the window shade and all that kind of stuff."

It wasn't until the attack was over that the crew learned that the victim was unable to hear or speak. Finally, after attempting to communicate in sign language, he was able to speak to the crew using messages on his phone.

"When he was trying to communicate with us in sign language that's when we realized he was deaf and non-verbal," Gupta continued. "He also just kept texting, 'I'm so scared.' Like it was just awful."

The alleged assailant apparently told flight attendants that the victim had previously attacked him in the street, however the victim communicated through messages that he had "never seen the man before in his life."

Thankfully, there was a doctor on board who was able to treat the man's injuries. And while he was not seriously harmed, he was understandably "physically and mentally shaken" following the incident. The suspect, on the other hand, was arrested shortly after the plane landed at Dulles and was still behind bars as of Thursday.

"Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one passenger was restrained after becoming physically aggressive toward another customer on a flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles on Monday," United Airlines said in a statement. "The flight landed safely and was met by paramedics and local law enforcement."