Belligerent passenger who threatened to "mess up the plane" ordered to pay US$20,638
One passenger found out the true cost of causing a plane to be diverted after a judge ordered him to pay US$20,638 (C$28,417.49) in restitution.
According to a release by the Transportation Security Administrator (TSA), Alexander Michael Dominic MacDonald from Chelmsford, England, was charged with restitution in addition to a sentence of time served. He was charged in the US District Court in Bangor for interfering with a flight crew and pleaded guilty on March 22.
Court records state that MacDonald was a passenger aboard a United Airlines flight travelling from London, England, to Newark, New Jersey, on March 1. He then got into a heated argument with the person he was travelling with, “causing a disturbance.”
“When flight attendants asked MacDonald to be quiet and attempted to calm him, he became belligerent, threatening, and intimidating towards them,” reads the release. “When the international purser aboard the flight intervened, MacDonald became belligerent and intimidating toward him as well and stated that he would ‘mess up the plane.'”
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His threat didn’t go over well because MacDonald soon found himself restrained in zip ties. The incident forced the flight to divert to Bangor International Airport (BGR) in Maine.
Passenger Bobby Field told Black Country Live that the incident occurred six hours into the flight, stating, “You could tell he had been drinking. He started grabbing her jacket and throwing stuff about.”
When a flight attendant tried intervening, MacDonald allegedly pushed him into a corner. Field said that a flight attendant asked if he could help.
“I just approached him and said, ‘Look mate, calm down. We’re in the air, and people are getting upset just come and sit down,'” recalled Field. “He turned around and came at me, so literally, I just flipped him over and put him on the floor. I’m a big old lump; to be fair, I’m a big guy. So I got him on his belly and got his hands behind his back.”
That’s when MacDonald was cuffed on his legs and hands.
“We left him for a few minutes to calm down, and we got a pillow under his head and some water, but he didn’t want to calm down,” said Field.
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He added that seeing him further enraged MacDonald, so he decided to step away. When staff removed the cable ties, MacDonald became belligerent once again, with Field stating that he had to “flatten him down” for the second time and put him in cuffs.
“But he just carried on giving it mouth, so the captain decided to divert the plane,” Field said. “Within 10 minutes, we were on the ground in Maine, and within seconds, the border police were on the plane and got him by the hands and legs and carried him off. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The plane refuelled, and after Field gave his statement to authorities, it took off for New York.
“Everyone cheered and clapped when I got off the plane, and so many people shook my hand,” he said. “It’s nothing; it’s something anyone would have done.”
MacDonald had been in custody since his arrest on March 1. The FBI, US Customs and Border Protection, and the Bangor Police Department are investigating the case.
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