Federal authorities detained a Delta Airlines copilot at the San Francisco International Airport over the weekend, according to California authorities.
The copilot with Delta Flight 2809, inbound from Minneapolis, had barely touched down in California when at least 10 federal agents, including several from the Department of Homeland Security, “barged through and stormed the cockpit,” a passenger told ABC San Francisco affiliate KGO.
“They removed the copilot, cuffed him, presumably arrested him, and brought him back down the aisle to deplane,” the passenger said of the incident that occurred Saturday evening.
The Delta pilot, Rustom Bhagwagar of Florida, was arrested in an investigation the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office has been conducting since April 2025. He was booked into the Martinez Detention Facility on five counts of oral copulation with a child under 10 years of age, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office cited by the Washington Examiner. He is being held on $5 million bail.
Homeland Security Investigations, a department within DHS, assisted the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office with carrying out the arrest warrant at the San Francisco International Airport.
“Thanks to DHS’ partnership with Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, this pedophile is behind bars,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner. “Anyone who commits depraved crimes against a child, including U.S. citizens, will face consequences. President Trump and Secretary Noem will continue to do everything in their power to protect children from exploitation and abuse.”
Aviation blog View From the Wing shared video of the arrest showing law enforcement, some of whom appeared to be in plainclothes, leaving the cockpit area of the plane as the lead pilot watched his colleague being arrested.
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Delta made headlines earlier this month after one of the airline’s flights was forced to make an emergency landing in the Portuguese Island of Terceira after the plane experienced an engine problem. Passengers were forced to spend over 24 hours on the island before leaving on a new aircraft.
The airline’s latest incident involving a pilot accused of child sex crimes comes weeks after the Supreme Court weighed in on minor access to pornography, ruling that a Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify the age of their users to ensure that only individuals 18 or older were accessing their material does not violate constitutional rights to free speech.
