The SHOW: Airlines still a "good gig"??

[Swanee]

Bottom line, continue defending a pedophile by arguing against a swift and decisive arrest. I’ll sit over and and enjoy one less piece of shit being on the street.

That's not what I'm doing. Don't dismiss my argument by making it into something that it isn't. Cops aren't the ones who get to dish out pushiment. If they do, or try to, then they're no better than the (alleged) piece of shit they arrest, and should be arrested and tried for assault and/or murder themselves.

You still seem to trust them unequivocally. That's wrong.

^^^
This.

So what don't we know? Why do you trust them without question?

Im tired of the "because you just can't know bro, they're the good guys. You just don't get it. You gotta trust me bro"

 

[Gatordev]

But keep with the "LE is perfect, and we shouldn't ever question them" mentality.

I haven't read a single post here where anyone has said that. Your bias is putting words in other people's mouths while making you deaf.

There's plenty of examples of bad policing and those should be dealt with, but there's also plenty of examples bad people initiate the bad acts and cops are trying to protect themselves through proper PPE (which is an actual OSHA requirement, by the way).

Was it necessary here? Probably not, but we don't know. So relax and let the process play out.

 

[mad dog]

So what don't we know? Why do you trust them without question?

We don’t know what we don’t know…we weren’t there. I’ve walked a couple miles in their shoes and I tend to trust them.

 

[Hotdogs]

I don't hold very many LE folks in high regard. Most of them that I know are folks who wouldn't be allowed in the military because they're too stupid, too fat, or too sexist and racist. It's a low-paying job that attracts the bottom of the barrel, yet they want to be called "Officers".

The most garbage takes of all garbage takes that have paraded around this site in a long time.

 

[MGoBrew11]

The most garbage takes of all garbage takes that have paraded around this site in a long time.

Ironically what a lot of civilians think of those of us in the military as well, including officers.

 

[taxi1]

Bottom line, continue defending a pedophile

WTF, he’s not defending a pedophile.

Edit: I think if they knew they were going to arrest him at the end of the flight, there is no fucking way they should have allowed him at the controls before the flight, with 100+ passengers on board. They basically used the fact that his job was going to deliver him to San Francisco and save them ass pain.

He had been under investigation since April. Did the pilot know? 1000% sure he didn’t know? If you knew he knew he was under investigation, would that change the risk calculus?

Their actions obviously tell us they think he had no clue, in which case they could have waited and grabbed him on a traffic stop or at home.

 

[FLGUY]

I don't hold very many LE folks in high regard. Most of them that I know are folks who wouldn't be allowed in the military because they're too stupid, too fat, or too sexist and racist. It's a low-paying job that attracts the bottom of the barrel, yet they want to be called "Officers".

Jesus Christ, dude. This is unhinged.

 

[mmx1]

HSI under DHS is the agency that has the mandate for human trafficking and child exploitation.

Which is why it’s insane that they’re getting pulled from their day jobs to tackle day laborers in Home Depot and stage presence patrols in public parks.

 

[taxi1]

How did the police know the guy was on that flight? Did they get the intel from Delta? If so, would they need some kind of warrant for that information? Or is it open knowledge?

 

[Gatordev]

This is like reading the comments section on an aviation blog or aviation YT channel.

I think if they knew they were going to arrest him at the end of the flight, there is no fucking way they should have allowed him at the controls before the flight, with 100+ passengers on board.

But we don't know if they knew that. They may not have been ready/able to before he took off. Why? ....

If so, would they need some kind of warrant

Yes, it's called an arrest warrant. They don't just pull those out of thin air. They have to go before a judge after building a case. All of that takes time.

How did the police know the guy was on that flight? Did they get the intel from Delta?

Of course they did. To put this into military terms, this isn't a whole lot different than a maintainer working on an aircraft and then NCIS shows up to tell the CO they are going to detain/arrest the maintainer. The CO is going to comply and pass along the info needed to NCIS.

 

[JTS11]

I saw a new report that said it was a mid-air sting operation. Not sure if that's accurate or not.

 

[taxi1]

But we don't know if they knew that. They may not have been ready/able to before he took off. Why? ....

If so, would they need some kind of warrant

Yes, it's called an arrest warrant. They don't just pull those out of thin air. They have to go before a judge after building a case. All of that takes time.

I am asking if they were tracking his location and movement prior to him getting on the plane in MSP, and were they in comms with Delta to do so. If they required an arrest warrant to get the info from Delta, then Delta knew their copilot was going to be arrested in SFO at the end of the flight before he got on the plane.

The perp doesn’t live in SFO, he lives in Florida. It wasn’t dumb luck that they issued a warrant and got the info on his movement and just so happened to do it at the moment he was being delivered to SFO.

Maybe there is a database of all commercial aircrew movement that DHS/TSA tracks, so Delta didn’t know their copilot was going to be arrested on the far end? I am assuming this was the case.

To put this into military terms, this isn't a whole lot different than a maintainer working on an aircraft and then NCIS shows up to tell the CO they are going to detain/arrest the maintainer.

I was in something similar as a CO, but it wasn’t a maintainer, it was aircrew. I pulled the aircrew from the schedule until it was resolved, for ORM reasons.

 

[Gatordev]

Words

That's a lot of assumptions. And they may all be correct. My point (along with many others) is that we don't know if that's what happened.

Any Part 121 and 135 operation is required to have a flight tracking system in place. That can come in many flavors, but for larger companies and certainly for the airlines, they know where their planes are at all times via real-time tracking. Any Part 121 and 135 operation is also supposed to maintain a manifest. Again, that can come in many flavors, but Delta certainly knew who was getting on that plan and when.

If they knew beforehand, sure, that's a ORM issue but we also don't know what the discussion with LE was. Again, more unknowns.

I get it...it was a weird choice, and maybe it wasn't the best choice (or even a good choice), but we don't have all of the pieces of information.

I was in something similar as a CO, but it wasn’t a maintainer, it was aircrew. I pulled the aircrew from the schedule until it was resolved, for ORM reasons.

Of course you did because that makes sense, but you did it once you were informed. We don't know when Delta was informed.

Side note: Speaking of an organization that likes to smell their own farts...NCIS can really do some bizarre things in the name of "security."

 

[Mos]

Since I'm the one that originally asked, I just think the situation should raise eyebrows and the powers that be should investigate and assess the police line of thinking on this. As we've seen in recent years, police have a lot of power and when they get it wrong it has disastrous consequences. Police are necessary, but there needs to be accountability for and improvement on police practices.

People get detained on a plane, it's usually because the subject creates the situation (unruly passenger, would-be terrorist, snakes, etc.). This seems like the police creating the situation when there were other options.

 

[taxi1]

This is interesting, as a look into AI as much as anything else.

I asked “Did the police know the Delta pilot was going to be on the flight before it took off?”

Answer:
Based on the available information, the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, which had been investigating Rustom Bhagwagar since April 2025 for alleged child sexual assault, knew he was scheduled to be on Delta flight 2809 from Minneapolis to San Francisco before it took off.

After obtaining a warrant, they coordinated with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and arrested Bhagwagar on board the plane after it landed at San Francisco International Airport.

So yes, the police did have prior knowledge of the pilot's involvement in the flight due to their ongoing investigation.

it provides links to information, but none of the links explicitly say that the police knew he was on the flight before it took off, or that Delta knew he was going to be arrested before it took off.