Galninger i luften - Curt Lewis

 

Man grabbed flight attendant, made sexual comments on flight from Charlotte, feds say A 40-year-old man from Arkansas is accused of sexually harassing a male flight attendant on a trip from Charlotte last year. Now he faces up to two decades in prison. Leon Anderson pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of interfering with a flight attendant, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas said in a news release. Anderson is from Maumelle, a city just outside of Little Rock. The incident occurred on a roughly two-hour flight from Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Little Rock on Feb. 11, 2020, prosecutors said. The flight was operated by PSA Airlines, which flies under the moniker American Eagle and is a subsidiary of American Airlines. Defense attorneys appointed to represent Anderson and a spokesperson with American Airlines did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Thursday. According to the release, a flight attendant was walking through the aisles prior to takeoff when Anderson grabbed his leg. “Startled, the flight attendant turned around, and the passenger — Anderson — apologized and said it was a mistake,” prosecutors said. But a few minutes later, Anderson reportedly threw his arm around the flight attendant’s shoulder and tried to grab him by the waist while apologizing again. Prosecutors said the flight attendant told him he didn’t need to continue saying sorry. The unwanted touching didn’t stop, according to the government. “The flight attendant continued his duties, but Anderson made inappropriate, sexual comments to the flight attendant and ultimately grabbed the flight attendant two more times in a sexual manner,” prosecutors said. The flight attendant ultimately told the captain, who called law enforcement. A grand jury indicted Anderson in October on one count of abusive sexual contact on an aircraft, court filings show. He pleaded guilty to a superseding information filed by prosecutors charging him with interference with a flight attendant. A federal judge hasn’t set Anderson’s sentencing date yet. He faces up to 20 years in prison, $250,000 in fines and three years of supervised release, prosecutors said.

 

 

Passenger aboard Jet Blue flight from Boston to San Juan tried to storm cockpit, FBI affidavit says ·     Flight crew tied him up with makeshift restraints A passenger aboard a flight from Boston to Puerto Rico tried to storm the cockpit Wednesday night while screaming in Spanish and Arabic, according to an FBI affidavit obtained by ABC News. The affidavit says the man, identified as Khalil El Dahr, was sitting in the sixth row on JetBlue flight 261 from Logan Airport to San Juan. It also indicates he tried to make a phone call during the flight but was unsuccessful and upset. About 45 minutes before arriving in San Juan, the affidavit says El Dahr "pulled himself out of his seat and rushed toward the flight deck yelling to be shot." A flight attendant pushed El Dahr into a space between the first row and the galley. While El Dahr was corralled there, a flight crew officer opened the cockpit door. The affidavit said El Dahr used that moment to pull the flight attendant's tie and kicked the flight attendant in the chest, again yelling for the crew to shoot him. "While EL DAHR was yelling, he was still holding the JetBlue (flight attendant) by their tie. This resulted in the tie tightening and ultimately prevented the JetBlue FA from breathing," the affidavit said. The flight attendant was able to prevent El Dahr from reaching the galley or flight deck but the struggle continued until a group of six or seven flight crew members was able to restrain El Dahr. The affidavit said they used makeshift restraints, including a neck tie around his ankles and seat belt extenders around El Dahr's torso. Upon landing safely in San Juan, law enforcement met the plane. According to the affidavit, the FBI said El Dahr should face a felony charge of interference with flight crew members and attendants.

 

 

(Photo Courtesy: YSSYguy at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons)       Flight attendant on Hilo-bound Hawaiian Airlines jet attacked by passenger HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaiian Airlines said Thursday a passenger assaulted one of its flight attendants in an unprovoked attack during a flight. The airline said the incident occurred shortly after flight HA152 left Honolulu for Hilo at 7:30 a.m. The flight attendant was walking down the aisle at the time. The pilot returned the plane to Honolulu, where the passenger got off and “was met by authorities,” the airline said in a statement. An FBI spokesperson said she was trying to get information. Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson Alex Da Silva said the flight attendant was evaluated for injuries and released from work to rest. U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, released the following statement on an assault against the flight attendant. “This attack is reprehensible,”he said. “I’ve been in direct contact with Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has assured me that this incident will be fully investigated by the FAA. The assailant must be held accountable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of despicable attack.”