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Yesterday there were two incidents aboard two separate Compass Airlines regional aircraft. One close to Reno, and another happened as an aircraft was cruising toward the Lakeview, Oregon area.

Compass Airlines is a small regional carrier that conducts contract flights for Delta Airlines and American. Yesterday there were two incidents aboard their aircraft. Both incidents could have happened aboard any commercial airliner and are not unique to Compass Airlines.


The first incident involved a flight from John Wayne Airport in California bound for Seattle, WA that encountered severe turbulence near Reno, NV. A passenger on board later posted on Twitter that they did a nose dive twice and the service cart impacted the ceiling of the aircraft.

The FAA reported a flight attendant and seven passengers were injured when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence enroute. According to Flight Aware the aircraft later proceeded to it’s destination in Seattle. Various media sources reported that three people were taken to the hospital with injuries. A person reported to be in the bathroom at the time of the turbulence was injured when he struck the ceiling of the aircraft.

Passenger tries to gain cockpit entry near Lakeview, Oregon

A second incident occurred only hours later aboard Compass Airlines Flight 6054 from Seattle to Los Angeles. The aircraft was cruising at 33,000 feet approaching the Lakeview, Oregon area when a passenger is reported to have tried to gain entry into the cockpit multiple times. According to news reports the FBI and Portland Police arrested the suspect passenger after other passengers restrained him while the plane diverted to Portland. Flight Aware shows the aircraft turning back to Portland as it was cruising toward Lakeview.

At time of this post, the arrested suspect’s name had not been released. However he will likely face federal charges for interfering with the flight.