A British man will pay more than $20,000 to United Airlines because his unruly behavior diverted the flight to Bangor.
U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker sentenced Alexander Michael Dominic MacDonald, 30, to time served and to reimburse United Airlines $20,638 on Friday in federal court in Bangor, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
MacDonald, who is from Chelmsford, a city northeast of London, was on a United Airlines flight from London to Newark, New Jersey, on March 1, when he got into an argument with his traveling companion, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
When flight attendants asked MacDonald to be quiet and attempted to calm him down, he became belligerent, threatening and intimidating toward them, stating that he would “mess up the plane,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Two passengers and the crew attempted to restrain MacDonald using disposable handcuffs, but he could not be contained to a crew seat and he didn’t calm down.
The plane touched down at Bangor International Airport at 9:56 a.m. on March 1, instead of landing in Newark as scheduled. There were about 160 passengers and 10 crew members on the flight.
MacDonald was arrested and has been held in custody since then.
He was charged on March 4 with one felony count of interference with flight crew members and attendants and one misdemeanor count of assault on a special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States. He pleaded guilty on March 22.
The diverted flight happened nearly a year after two Englishmen were sentenced for similar behavior, which caused their flight to land unscheduled at the Bangor International Airport. The two men pleaded guilty to the same charges MacDonald is charged with. They had to pay $26,500 in restitution, the cost of landing at the airport.
BDN writer Marie Weidmayer contributed to this report.
