Who is Dante Milne? Full details about unruly passenger accused of sending hijack text

A man aged 25 years was arrested after allegedly sending a text message stating he would take over the controls of a United Airlines aircraft flying to Newark, New Jersey, resulting in the aircraft being redirected from its intended destination back to Harry Reid International Airport shortly after taking off on Saturday night.

Dante Milne was arrested after United Airlines Flight 1681 landed safely at the airport. Milne was booked for threat or dissemination of false information in relation to an act of terrorism and faces up to one year to 20 years in prison. Milne posted bail of $10,000 and will appear in court on Tuesday, October 27.

According to the criminal complaint, Milne communicated that he was “gonna hijack this” plane, using an expletive, and “crash ur row only.” The document hasn’t clarified specifically how the message was delivered or to whom it was directed.

Audio recordings from the air traffic control station showed that the crisis occurred approximately 13 minutes into the flight, when the attendant received the text and relayed the information to the pilots. The pilots did not approach the alleged threat and instead decided to monitor the individual to prevent further complications. Upon returning to the airport, the pilots reported the airplane as “grossly overweight” and requested full runway clearance to lose some weight.

The flight, carrying 150 passengers and six crew members, landed without incident about 30 minutes after the emergency began. No injuries were reported.

United said the flight was delayed or overnight due to crew timeout and departed for Newark Sunday morning.

The FAA confirmed it will investigate the incident, noting there have been over 1,400 unruly passenger incidents so far in 2026.