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This recent incident highlights ongoing concerns over attempted cockpit breaches in recent years.
WASHINGTON — On Wednesday morning, Houston police apprehended an individual who allegedly attempted to enter the cockpit of a Delta Airlines flight.
The Houston Police Department reported receiving a call at 5:38 a.m. regarding a passenger trying to force their way into the aircraft’s cockpit.
The plane was approaching Gate 32 at William P. Hobby Airport when the situation unfolded.
The flight was reportedly en route from Houston’s Hobby Airport to Atlanta.
No injuries were reported, and it’s unclear what circumstances led to the attempted cockpit breach.
Commercial aircraft cockpits are the most secure areas onboard the aircraft, with advancements in safety technology made in the quarter-century since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In those attacks, hijackers breached the cockpits of four planes and rammed significant U.S. infrastructure, bringing down the Twin Towers in New York and damaging the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
The attacks forced a reckoning for airline safety, and prompted a number of widespread crackdowns on potentially dangerous activity from airline passengers. The TSA was created to screen passengers, cockpits were hardened and new locking procedures were developed for them.
This incident is the latest in the past half-decade in which there have been fears of a cockpit breach. In October 2023, an off-duty pilot was accused of trying to shut down the engines of a Horizon Air jet while mid-flight. And in Oct. 2025, the pilots of a SkyWest flight mistakenly thought somebody was trying to breach the cockpit and forced an emergency landing.
This is a breaking story and will be updated with more information.