Overview

• The former Delta airlines pilot, Jonathan Dunn, who threatened to shoot a flight captain over a dispute about a potential flight diversion, had previously challenged the Air Force’s coronavirus vaccine mandate to the U.S. Supreme Court citing religious grounds.
• Dunn had refused to get the coronavirus vaccine and was removed from his command after serving for nearly two decades as a pilot, trainer, and commander in the Air Force.
• Dunn had received numerous other vaccines and had already recovered from a COVID-19 infection — but viewed the coronavirus vaccine as something that had taken a “symbolic” and “sacramental quality.”
• Dunn flew airliners for Delta airlines after his military service and was indicted for allegedly threatening to shoot a flight captain over a dispute about diverting the plane due to a passenger’s “medical event”.
• After the incident, the TSA immediately removed Dunn from the Federal Flight Deck Officer program that arms certain pilots to “defend the flight deck of commercial aircraft from takeover.”
• Dunn is due to be arraigned on Nov. 16 in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah, and if convicted faces up to 20 years in prison.