Free the Vegas Hijack Text Guy

By Scott Willson · 2026-10-26

United Flight 1681 from Las Vegas to Newark turned around less than an hour after takeoff Saturday night after a flight attendant saw a 25 year old passenger, Dante Milne, typing texts about hijacking the plane. According to the criminal complaint he wrote that he was “gonna hijack this” plane, with an expletive, and that he would “crash ur row only.” The crew followed protocol, told the cockpit instead of confronting him, went into lockdown and flew back to Vegas, where police met the plane and arrested him. The pilot told air traffic control he was “compliant because he’s unaware,” meaning the guy had no idea anyone had seen his phone. He’s charged with a felony for making threats or conveying false information about an act of terrorism, posted a $10,000 bond, and the other 149 passengers spent the night in Vegas.

Imagine you just had a horrible run in Vegas. You’re there for four nights, which is two nights too long. You got raped at the blackjack table. You got killed on the slots. You got killed in roulette. You finally board your plane to go back to New York City, and you’re texting your buddy, and you go, I just got destroyed in Vegas. I lost everything. I swear to God, I’m going to hijack this plane and fly it into the ground. I’m so miserable. And then some flight attendant sees the text and rats you out to the pilot.

Look, if this flight was going anywhere except Vegas to New York, then sure, I probably take it a little more seriously. You gotta be aware, though, that you’re flying from Vegas. This poor guy just probably had the worst two days of his entire life. I’m not buying this story. I think that the flight attendant is a rat, and we need to free this guy immediately.

That being said, if there is some other evidence that he maybe was actually going to hijack the flight, I take this all back, but I think this guy just had bad luck at the blackjack table.