Unruly passenger who assaulted crew was on magic mushrooms say authorities

The passenger later confessed he had knowingly taken psychoactive psilocybin mushrooms. Photo / Emiel Molenaar, Unsplash

A passenger arrested on assault charges on a United Airlines flight was found to be tripping on magic mushrooms.

Chelluy Loghan Sevilla was charged with attacking two cabin crew members and attempting to interfere with the flight from Miami to Washington DC, last week.

An affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, regarding the incident on 4 October, said Sevilla began acting erratically about an hour into the service.

Authorities said that the passenger grabbed the arm of the traveller next to him before "wandering around the plane, running up and down the aisle, clapping loudly near the cockpit and yelling obscenities."

Trying to get access to one of the plane toilets, Sevilla broke part of the door when he found it was occupied.

When asked by flight attendants to return to his seat, Sevilla's "screams and outburst grew louder," according to witness statements. Instead he lay down in the aisle refusing to move.

He reportedly grabbed and twisted the breast of a female flight attendant who tried to get Sevilla to move. He "suddenly jumped and attacked" reads the affidavit.

A police officer, who was also onboard the plane, intervened with handcuffs. However the passenger continued to struggle, twisting the arm of another flight attendant.

Restrained in cuffs he continued to "scream and yell incoherent things for the remainder of the flight."

The plane was met by law enforcement at Reagan National Airport and Sevilla was arrested.

A statement from the FBI said that under questioning the passenger later admitted to taking psilocybin before the flight.

The naturally occurring psychedelic drug, also known as magic mushrooms, is an hallucinogen and can cause a person to hallucinate, seeing or hearing things that do not exist or are distorted, according to the Drug and Alcohol Foundation.

The intoxicate passenger said he had taken the drug willingly and had some memory of the incident on the plane.

"Sevilla said that he was not totally surprised that he acted this way after consuming it. Sevilla stated that he was sorry for his actions," read the affidavit.

In a statement from the airline, United said they thanked the police officer for his actions on the flight and the crew for their handling of the situation.

"We also followed up with our crew members to make sure they were OK. We'd like to thank our crew for handling this difficult situation with professionalism."