KANSAS CITY – A man who forced an emergency plane landing in Kansas City and assaulted a police officer has been sentenced to prison.
Juan Remberto Rivas Jr., of Northridge, California, was sentenced in Platte County to two years for second degree assault of a law enforcement officer and one year for attempting to escape from custody. Those sentences will run concurrently.
Rivas was a passenger on an American Airlines flight carrying about 150 passengers that departed Los Angeles on February 13, 2022, bound for Washington, D.C. During the flight, Rivas attempted to open a passenger door of the Boeing 737, saying, “I’m going to f---ing kill you all.”
Other passengers subdued Rivas, and the plane made an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport. Upon landing, federal and state law enforcement officers took Rivas into custody.
Prosecutors proved at trial that, while being escorted to a police car to be taken to the Platte County Detention Center, Rivas broke free of his handcuffs and assaulted a KCI Airport police officer. Rivas also tried to grab that officer’s weapon.
Rivas had also been charged in United States District Court with interfering with flight crewmembers for his actions aboard the flight. He pleaded guilty to that crime and received a 19-month federal sentence. Once he completes that federal time, he will serve time in a Missouri prison.