Pilot Locks Himself In Cockpit, Demands Unpaid Wages, Gets Arrested

Well here’s something you don’t see every day, which makes for quite a story…

Magnicharters pilot “hijacks” plane at Mexico City Airport

This incident happened at around 3PM on Friday, December 19, 2025, and involves Magnicharters flight 780, which was scheduled to operate from Mexico City (MEX) to Cancun (CUN).

For context, Magnicharters is a domestic Mexican holiday carrier that operates a fleet of a handful of Boeing 737-300s. The airline has reportedly had financial issues for quite some time, and that became especially apparent to passengers on a flight yesterday. While authorities are investigating exactly what happened, let me share what eyewitnesses have reported.

After all passengers had boarded, and shortly before the plane was scheduled to depart, the captain informed passengers that (translated) “this plane isn’t leaving until they pay us what they owe us.” The airline reportedly hadn’t paid pilots what they were due for five months — it’s not clear if that refers to the entire salary, or what. He claimed he even had to buy his own navigational charts, because the airline wasn’t providing those for pilots.

The pilot continued by explaining that he has three children, and said “I feel bad for you, because you don’t deserve this, I’ve been with the airline for almost three years, and I’ve never failed to complete a flight.”

So, what prompted his frustration on this particular flight? Some reports suggest that he had just learned that he was being dismissed by the airline, so that’s why he took action this time. However, that’s not confirmed, so I can’t say with certainty if that’s accurate.

Eventually authorities boarded the aircraft, forced the cockpit door open, and arrested the pilot. The passengers were then also removed from the aircraft.

Authorities are now investigating what happened with this incident. It’s not the first time that Magnicharters has been in the news for financial issues or questionable labor practices.

This isn’t the way to address frustration with your employer

If the situation at Magnicharters is as the pilot describes, then I can certainly understand why he was so frustrated, and felt like he had no reasonable way to get the company to do the right thing. I imagine he had no intent to harm any passengers (or himself), but was just trying to make a point.

Still, stuff like this is taken seriously, and of course this shows bad judgment. Assuming he had a good record, he should have no issues finding a job as a pilot somewhere else. However, a move like this puts your career in jeopardy, since I can’t imagine authorities will view this positively.

While more extreme, I can’t help but be reminded of the 2014 incident involving Ethiopian Airlines flight ET702. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 was scheduled to fly from Ethiopia to Europe. While the plane was over Sudan, the captain used the bathroom, and the first officer locked the cockpit door.

He squawked 7500, which is the international code for a hijacking. The plane eventually diverted to Geneva. While authorities on the ground knew there was a hijacking, what they didn’t know is that it was actually the pilot who had hijacked the plane, and not a passenger.

He was just looking to escape Ethiopia, and was seeking asylum. I would consider that to be much more serious, since it actually happened inflight, rather than on the ground.

Bottom line

A Magnicharters Boeing 737 captain was supposed to operate a flight from Mexico City to Cancun. However, he was frustrated over alleged unpaid wages, so he decided to lock himself in the cockpit and demand pay, or else he wouldn’t operate the flight.

Authorities ultimately boarded the aircraft and removed him, and passengers were deplaned as well. If the facts are as the pilot presented, I see why he would be frustrated. However, this isn’t the way to go about expressing that frustration, and I suspect this incident is going to make his life much more difficult…

What do you make of this incident at Mexico City Airport?