An drunken airline passenger, that had caused a flight to be diverted from its original course due to his erratic and aggressive behavior, has pleaded guilty to endangering the safety or security of an aircraft in flight, as read in CBC News and other news media.
D.C., 39, a resident of the U.K., was on a flight with 330 other passengers that was due to travel from Vancouver to London.
After pleading guilty to breaking one count of the Aeronautics Act, D.C. must pay a $2,000 fine and approximately an additional $14,000 to the airline in restitution.
According to witnesses on the flight, flight attendants were assisted by passengers in restraining D.C. as the pilot landed in Iqaluit on March 27 at about 3 in the morning. Once they landed, D.C. was taken into custody at the Baffin Correctional Centre and held there for nine days.
Crown prosecutor Amy Porteous commented, "Mr. (D.C.) was quite intoxicated on the flight. He grew belligerent with staff and passengers and didn't calm down when asked to. At one point he actually had to be restrained and spent the next hour or so struggling, spitting, swearing at and threatening the people who were holding him down."
According to Air Transat D.C. consumed alcohol he had brought with him aboard the aircraft.
D.C. – yelling, swearing and punching – was read a card about appropriate behavior by a flight attendant, and moved to the back of the plane.
However, D.C. continued to behave badly – he broke a coffee maker and drew blood when he struck a mirror. The flight attendant took a second stab at reading the behavior card to D.C., and then he warned D.C. that if he failed to correct his behavior they would be forced to land.
D.C. was placed in plastic wrist restraints, which twice failed to hold him. At that point eight or nine male passengers went to the rear of the plane to offer their help.
After aggressively lunging toward one flight attendant and then another, D.C. was wrestled to the ground and held in a headlock. Still agitated, D.C. spat and made verbal and physical threats toward his captors.
D.C. told a Welsh person that was helping to hold him down, "Welshmen should be slaughtered."
As the plane prepared for its descent, D.C. tried to bit his captor's fingers.
Patrick Bruce, D.C.'s attorney, claimed that his client didn't clearly remember the events on the plane, he has no criminal record and had been working nearly two months straight. Bruce also stated that D.C. is a nervous flyer and may have over drank just to remain calm during the trip.
D.C. said, "I'm just a normal Englishman really. I'm not a hooligan. I'm not violent. I've never had a violent past. I've never really had a criminal record ... I will never, never drink again, ever."
There is always a reason for a criminal act, and whatever the motivation it is best to contact a defense attorney to represent you in court.
