Airline pilot arrested for sex crimes against a child

A Delta Airlines pilot was arrested at a San Francisco airport on charges of sex crimes against a child.

Police and federal agents boarded the plane Saturday night shortly after it landed at San Francisco International Airport, stormed the cockpit and took co-pilot Rustom Bhagwagar, 34, into custody, authorities said.

Mr. Bhagwagar, a Florida resident, is charged with five counts of oral copulation with a child under the age of 10. He is in custody at the Martinez Detention Facility in Martinez, California, in lieu of $5 million in bail, said the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office.

Mr. Bhagwagar had helped land Delta flight 2809 from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to San Francisco before he was nabbed by sheriff’s office detectives and Department of Homeland Security agents.

Delta said in a statement that it 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.”

The sheriff’s office said it began investigating the case in April when it got a report about the alleged crimes, and then later found out that Mr. Bhagwagar was a pilot and that he was landing at the airport in San Mateo County, across San Francisco Bay from Contra Costa County.