A Utah man is facing a steep fine and prison time after assaulting a female passenger with a razor blade on a JetBlue flight.
Utah Man Holds Razor Blade To Woman’s Throat On JetBlue Flight To Salt Lake City
Merrill Darrell Fackrell, 41, has been charged with two crimes:
- assault with a dangerous weapon on or near an aircraft
- carrying a weapon on a flight
According to the arrest report, Fackrell boarded JetBlue flight 871 from New York (JFK) to Salt Lake City (SLC) on Monday, November 21, 2022 with a concealed straight-edge razor.
Onboard, Merrill Darrell Fackrell, 41 was seated in a window seat next to a married couple. During the flight, he turned to the woman, seated in the middle seat, and told her to pause her movie while placing his hands over her screen.
She lowered her headphones, noticing that Fackrell was holding the razor blade just inches from her neck. The woman’s husband went to the front of the aircraft to get assistance from the flight attendant (um, what?) and the woman lunged for the aisle to escape. While doing so, Fackrell reached and tried to stop her by grabbing her shoulder.
Again, what was her husband thinking? Hey dude, you evacuate your wife first, then get a flight attendant. There’s also this cool thing called a flight attendant call button right up there by the air vent and light. You just have to press it and a flight attendant will come to you. Yelling also works.
I just cannot believe, at least according to the Department of Justice press release, that the guy abandoned his wife while she had a razor aimed at her neck.
The razor, later identified as a Facon wood-handled straight edge razor, was later secured. The flight did not divert. Alcohol is thought to be involved in Fackrell’s behavior.
CONCLUSION
Some details are missing and I don’t mean to throw the husband under the bus unless warranted, but if he ran while his wife was under attack, I’d say he might be the bigger problem for her than the idiot with the razor blade (not that she cannot take care of herself, but is chivalry dead?).
As for Fackrell, I hope he must atone for his indiscretion and is self-accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The TSA staff who let him through should also be fired.
How about discipline for the TSA agent that screened his bag? Isn’t this exactly what they are supposed to prevent from getting on board? Did they miss the training session that mentioned the 9/11 hijackers?
Agreed…how the **** did the knife get through security in the first place? I try not to jump on the overused anti-TSA bandwagon, but this seems like a huge miss.
You realize, of course, how much damage could have been done fighting with a guy with a straight razor in the confines of three across coach seats with his wife in the middle? Maybe Rambo might have taken a chance but it seems the husband’s course of action worked.
Exactly. Somehow that woman and her husband figured out how to emerge from that situation without anyone sustaining a physical injury. Good for them.
In other reports, witnesses indicate that the guy with the razor ordered the husband to get out of his seat. I don’t think many of us have a great plan for what to do when someone has a razor at your companion’s throat and orders you to get out of your aisle seat.
The husband getting out of his seat was likely essential to the outcome as it allowed the woman to be able to make an escape.
Please stop commenting on people’s character. You weren’t there, you haven’t talked to anyone there, and you’ve seemingly descended into a spiral of hate. I don’t mind that this story is here, but your uninformed and malicious comments detract from the otherwise interesting blog you’ve had for years. You don’t seem to have incorporated the reader feedback from your ignorant and malicious article about a person who didn’t want to give up their seat.
I just call it like I see it – and from time to time I am humbled. Like I said, I hope I am wrong here…
How can a person “call it when they see it” when they have not, in fact, seen it?
What would be more correct to says is “I am calling this based on what I read and not on what I saw as I did not see it.” I would think it’s only humbling if the error is described in a new post. Correcting something in the comments is basically not correcting it at all.
To Mike. Maybe “calling it as he sees it” is another way of saying how I might react. Sometimes doing the most helpful thing is affected by one’s individual experience. Clearly Mr. Klint was raised to be a gentleman. Today that and $10 bucks will get you a coffee but not far in a knife fight. But I see his view as admirable. And let’s hope nobody has to face this choice
Typical neocon cowardice. All talk till you’re put in the same situation. You went and lived in the green zone in Baghdad for a while so you think too much of yourself.
Just calling it as I see it.
The question is: ” (not that she cannot take care of herself, but is chivalry dead?).”
Well… if you argue that women can take care of themselves, they why do they need chivalry? Why would men be chivalrous when it’s either not needed or rewarded?
(I’m thinking that it might make sense that rather than get into a physical altercation that may cause injury, getting the FA might have helped to talk the attacker down.)
Apologies if this breaks the URL rule, but this video comes to mind:
https://youtu.be/V4Js3zS7vxY
It would have been better if you just put up the story without judgment on the husband… except of course you are just looking for clicks and engagement, in which case it’s working. Though it makes some of us avoid reading. Calling it as it is means just reporting and not interpreting based on your biased lens/world view
What is it with you and your macho head games??
Yeah, but you called him a “sissy”. Come on, Matt.
Matthew, you really tell it like it ain’t.
Ohhhhh TSA!! And my water bottle that I pay $0.20 at Costco is very very dangerous so I have to pay $4.50 for the same bottle inside security. Job well done TSA for securing other passengers against my dangerous water bottle.
As for the husband, yes, totally unacceptable BUT not too surprised that nowadays he could be charged with assault if he tried to react and protect his wife. Who knows what went through his mind.
Matthew, you really are being super judgemental on this. Not only were none of us present to make any kind of informed judgement but you’re cranking up the vitriol by insulting some poor schmuck for literally not engaging in a knife fight with a stranger while his wife was between them.
You’ve been going after people with both barrels lately when they do something you don’t personally condone. Why the sudden change? One of your strongest characteristics as a blogger has been your integrity. Lately you’ve kind of pushed that to the back burner at times in favor of personal attacks that are puzzling in the context of your previous writings. It’s your blog but I genuinely miss the impartiality that was your hallmark and that made you such a good read.
Call him a sissy!!!. Wondering if you feel like a sissy and have to label other people so you will feel better about yourself. Talking about toxic masculinity.
Great job….
I do not know if I need to continue reading this blog that is insulting other people in very extreme unfortunately circumstances.
In such a confined space the husband would have needed to clear some space. Hopefully whilst yelling knife, help & pointing. Pressing the call button really would not have been helpful. Fifty people pressing the call button, better. All the while praying for a MMA cage fighter sitting in the row behind you! Alcohol was mentioned, but the fact psycho brought the straight razor indicates he may have had a even greater agenda. And to think TSA made me toss my very small tweezers once! Just happy the outcome was good
The useless TSA agents who missed the straight edged razor should have their names published and their pay docked while they are retrained.
Seriously Mathew? … “There’s also this cool thing called a flight attendant call button right up there by the air vent and light. You just have to press it and a flight attendant will come to you.” Maybe where you sit in Business and First Class, but in cattle class, you’re lucky if an FA ever answers the call button. You need to join the rest of us once in a while.
I do. More often than I care to.
I call this as you looking for the clicks again. Just because you were part of the murderous mission to Iraq in 2003 where you didn’t fight you seem to think you know what to do. Typical blowhard neocon Rambo wannabe
You’re becoming a jerk. A judgemental, self serving, know nothing, jerk.#callitlikeiseeit
Who else thinks the author should be put in a similar situation so we can see if he will be a sissy or will his inner Jean Claude van Dumb come out
Wow. Four comments. Struck a nerve.
And I’m not a neocon.
Yes. You did. Similarly 2 replies from you means I struck a nerve it seems.
Sadly you’re getting good at passing ridiculous judgements on others. So let’s put you in the same scenario as that husband and then see if you’re a man or a sissy.
Note I don’t wish harm on anyone, but it would be interesting to see if you live up to your own definition of manliness.
Of course the author won’t ask how a razor made it through TSA checks. Because that agency was created under his spiritual mentor Dubya. Hey. Business must be slow so every click helps.
You must be kidding me. The TSA agent who let it through should be fired and I’ve been a critic of the TSA since its inception.
I think it’s completely inappropriate to call the husband a sissy. By moving out of his seat he provided his wife a way of escape before her assailant even knew what was going on. If her husband would have remained in his seat, pressed his flight attendant call button he’s inadvertently keeping his wife in danger and would have alerted the assailant which would have made the situation all the more dangerous for his wife. Getting out of the way without alerting the assailant provide his wife with a way of escape. It precisely the right thing to do in this situation there is nothing sissy about it. When someone is holding a straight edge razor inches from your wife’s throat the last thing you need is the husband to create a situation that could raise the adrenaline level of the person holding the blade you also don’t want to draw a ton of attention until your wife is out of harms way.
Instead of degrading the husbands response perhaps you should ask how the TSA allowed a passenger to get through a security checkpoint with a concealed straight edge razor?
Worst take ever. By all means, mention multiple times you can’t believe someone else’s actions when faced with an emergency. Horrible. You obviously have no idea what’s it’s like to have a loved one inches from mortality.
I can call it like I see it too. You are an ignorant person and this is an embarrassing reflection on you.
How can someone who brags about 200,000 miles and 130 countries have such a simplistic response to this?
If you’re not embarrassed, you’re a fool. Calling it as WE ALL see it.
@Matthew, I’m glad that you edited your post, but as others have pointed out, this was an incredibly judgmental and disappointing one. For one of your previous posts, you took a lot more time than normal to write and edit it so that you used the proper pronouns. Perhaps you could take a similar approach for (and wait to publish) future posts that involve a lot of emotions, judgments, controversy, etc. Delaying a post by a day or two to review/edit can mean the difference between a well-articulated and balanced post and one filled with vitriol and condescension. JMHO.
Relax people. This is clearly click bait. He cannot seriously mean what he said about the husband.