A pilot on a Delta flight over the weekend from the Twin Cities to the Bay Area was arrested on the aircraft upon landing, on allegations of sexually abusing a child, officials said Monday.
Rustom Bhagwagar, 34, of Homestead, Fla., was apprehended Saturday night while aboard the Boeing 757 by detectives from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office and remains jailed in lieu of $5 million on five counts of sexual assault of a child younger than 10 years old.
The Sheriff’s Office in the Bay Area said the arrest soon after the plane’s 9:35 p.m. PDT arrival followed an investigation that began in April and is continuing.
A passenger on Flight 2809 told the San Francisco Chronicle in an email that “a group of people with badges, guns, and different agency vests/markings were pushing their way up through the aisle to the cockpit.”
Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant said in a statement that the air carrier “has zero tolerance for unlawful conduct and will fully cooperate with law enforcement. We are appalled by reports of the charges related to the arrest, and the individual in question has been suspended pending an investigation.”
Bhagwagar received his commercial pilot’s license in November 2022, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
