Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto was arrested after United Airlines Flight 2174 landed safely in New Orleans, following a disturbance in which authorities say he allegedly claimed to have a bomb and tried to enter the cockpit. The arrest by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office turned a tense cabin incident into a criminal case as the plane came down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
The episode is drawing attention because the flight was on its way to New Orleans when pilots reportedly issued a hijacking alert after the bomb claim, even though the plane landed without further incident. That sequence leaves the central question intact: what happened inside the cabin that was serious enough to trigger the alert but ended with a safe landing and an airport arrest.
Department of Homeland Security said Gomez-Alberto was accused of attempting to enter the cockpit, and local reporting cited the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office as saying he was booked on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing. In a separate statement to Digital, United Airlines confirmed there had been a disturbance on the flight.
The case carries added weight because DHS said Gomez-Alberto had previously been apprehended by Border Patrol after illegal entries near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011 and near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014, and that he was removed from the country after both encounters. DHS also said he was arrested again in 2019 after an attempted illegal entry near San Ysidro, California, then released by ICE in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings.
ICE lodged a detainer for Gomez-Alberto on November 10, 2026, and that is the next step known so far. He is now in the hands of local authorities after a flight disturbance that moved quickly from a reported threat in the air to an arrest on the ground, while the record of what prompted the cockpit alert remains the sharpest unanswered point.
