A man allegedly stabbed two teenagers with a metal fork and attempted to slap a crew member aboard a Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Germany over the weekend, causing the plane to divert to Boston, authorities said Monday (October 27, 2025).
A short way into Saturday’s flight, just after the meal service, one of the victims, a 17-year-old boy, awoke to find the accused, Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, 28, standing over him in the middle seat, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release.
The Indian national allegedly stabbed the boy in the left collar bone area with a metal fork before stabbing a second boy, also 17, who was seated beside him in a center row, in the back of the head with the fork, causing a laceration.
The victims have not been publicly identified.
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As flight crew members attempted to subdue Usiripalli, authorities say he formed an imaginary gun with his fingers and gestured that he was shooting himself in the mouth. The man then slapped a female passenger to his left and attempted to slap a flight crew member, charging documents state.
The plane, which took off from Chicago O’Hare International Airport at approximately 4:26 p.m. Saturday bound for Frankfurt, was in the air for about two hours before it landed early due to the incident, according to FlightAware. Usiripalli was taken into custody at Boston Logan International Airport, authorities said.
Usiripalli was charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with the intent to do bodily harm. He faces up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a maximum fine of $250,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
“Usiripalli presently does not have lawful status in the United States,” the U.S. attorney’s office said, adding that he had previously been admitted to the country on a student visa and was recently enrolled in a master’s program for biblical studies.
The Massachusetts State Police, Lufthansa Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration has warned that airlines have seen “rapid growth” in unruly passenger incidents in recent years. It defines such incidents as those “where airline passengers have disrupted flights with threatening or violent behavior.” The FAA has documented at least 1,205 unruly incidents so far this year.
Earlier this year, a 35-year-old Massachusetts man was sentenced to time served and five years of supervised release after spending 26 months in prison for attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon aboard a United Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles in March 2023.
Last year, a man aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Las Vegas was arrested after authorities said he stabbed a fellow passenger with an improvised weapon made of several pens bound together by rubber bands.