An airline passenger was arrested for allegedly assaulting a deaf and non-verbal man in a vicious, unprovoked attack on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco International Airport in California to Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Officials with the FBI said that Everett Chad Nelson got up from his seat about two hours into the flight to use the bathroom.

As he made his way back to his seat, he stopped and started attacking a sleeping passenger. Court documents state that Nelson punched the man "repeatedly in the face and head until blood was drawn."

The attack was so violent that blood splattered across the man's seat, the wall, and the window. The victim suffered a gash on his nose and bruising on his eyes.

"He was just very violently and very aggressively just pummeling the guy who was in the window seat who was in front of me, and it was vicious. This wasn't like a bar room; I'm going to throw a couple of punches around; I mean, this was vicious," passenger Sandhya Gupta told KGO.

Another passenger intervened and helped crew members break up the assault. Nelson was then held in the front of the plane until it landed at Dulles, where he was taken into custody and charged with one count of assault by beating, striking, and wounding.

The victim was treated by a doctor on the flight.

"Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one passenger was restrained after becoming physically aggressive toward another customer," United Airlines said in a statement. "The flight landed safely and was met by paramedics and local law enforcement."

Mark Simone