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A passenger on a flight of Delta Airlines from Dublin to New York refused to wear a mask, threw a can that hit another passenger, put on his cap on the flight captain’s head and told him “Don’t touch me” and pulled down his pants and exposed his buttocks to a flight attendant, prosecutors said in a federal complaint unsealed Friday.
The complaint, filed in the Eastern District of New York, states that Shane McInerney, aged 54, from Galway, Ireland, “created…numerous disturbances” in the Delta flight on January 7 that was headed to John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to The New York Times.
After the flight from Delta from Dublin will arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 7, passenger, Shane McInerney, from 20 years old, from Galway, Ireland, was accused of and intentionally assaulting and intimidating crew members, prosecutors said.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
On Saturday, McInerney’s attorney, Benjamin Yaster, declined to comment on the allegations. McInerney made an initial appearance in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on January 14 and He was released on a bond of $19,000 dollars, prosecutors said.
The cases of unruly behavior by airline passengers have risen sharply, with airlines saying there were more than 5,000 episodes last year. Most of them, more than 3.,600 cases, included people who allegedly refused to wear masks.
On Wednesday, an American Airlines flight from Miami to London returned to Miami, almost an hour and a half into its journey. due to a passenger refusing to wear a mask, the airline reported.
In October, a passenger was accused of punching an American Airlines stewardess in the face , causing a concussion, after a dispute over the use of a mask .
And in December, a California woman pleaded guilty to repeatedly punching a flight attendant on a Southwest Airlines flight, bloodiing her face and breaking her three teeth.
“Over the past year, we have seen a dramatic increase in unruly passenger incidents, and we have taken a number of measures to control them”, said Steve Dickson, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), during an online discussion this week.
“And I’m pleased to say that rates have come down significantly year over year, but we still have more work to do,” said Dickson. “And this is, again, something that we need to continue to focus on.”
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