June 29, 2021- 2:50 p.m.
A man who jumped out of a plane and onto the tarmac at a California airport said he purchased “a lot” of crystal meth before boarding the flight.
Luis Antonio Victoria Dominguez, 33, was on board a SkyWest Airlines flight departing from Los Angeles International Airport on Friday when he allegedly approached the cockpit and began banging on the door, trying to enter the space, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
When he was unable to enter the cockpit, Victoria Dominguez opened an emergency exit door and jumped out of the plane and onto the tarmac, prosecutors said.
The man was charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
He broke his leg in the fall and later underwent surgery. He is expected to make his initial court appearance this week.
Victoria Dominguez arrived at the airport from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on Tuesday, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office, obtained by The Hill. His goal was to travel to Salt Lake City, but he did not have a connecting flight.
He reportedly went to a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, near a bus station, where he drank several beers and spent $20 to buy “a lot” of crystal meth, according to a sequence of events he provided, which was included in the complaint.
Victoria Dominguez traveled to a different hotel on Wednesday and smoked the meth “on and off” throughout the day, according to the complaint. He then decided he would fly to Salt Lake City instead of taking the bus.
On Thursday, he smoked more crystal meth before departing his hotel to board a flight from the Los Angeles airport, the complaint says. Victoria Dominguez missed two flights before boarding a third.
The complaint says Victoria Dominguez was “coming down from all the drugs he had used the last couple of days and immediately started to doze off.”
When he heard passengers seated behind him laughing and talking about the flight going to a location that was not Salt Lake City, Victoria Dominguez panicked and “immediately stood up and walked to the front of the aircraft.”
