Federal agents arrested a Delta Air Lines co-pilot immediately upon landing at a California airport on Saturday.
Rustom Bhagwagar, 34, of Florida, was arrested in the plane’s cockpit at San Francisco International Airport. Contra Costa County, Florida, police said it had been investigating Bhagwagar since April regarding child sex crimes, according to KTVU.
Homeland Security confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that it assisted local officials in Bhagwagar’s arrest.
Bhagwagar was scheduled to fly from San Francisco to Minneapolis, Minnesota, later that day. A passenger who reportedly witnessed the incident told the San Francisco Chronicle that a group with badges and guns “stormed the cockpit, cuffed the co-pilot, arrested him, walked him down the aisle, and ushered him off the plane through the cabin doors located between first and coach.”
Afterward, a second group reportedly entered the cockpit to collect the co-pilot’s belongings.
Bhagwagar, who is charged with oral copulation with a child under 10 years, remains jailed on $5 million bail.
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[Feature Photo: Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office]
