Frontier Airlines' passenger Maxwell Berry has been sentenced to 60 days in prison and one year of supervised release following his assault on three flight attendants last year.
Berry pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Miami this week to three counts of assault. In addition to the jail term, Mr Berry was fined $2,500 and ordered to pay more than $1,500 in restitution. The charges carry a maximum sentence of a year and a half in jail and fines up to $15,000.
The inflight incident.
Berry, 22, had been traveling aboard Frontier flight #2239 from Philadelphia to Miami this past August when the incident occurred. According to a police report, the incident began when the Norwalk, Ohio, resident ordered an in-flight drink. The passenger brushed his empty cup across a flight stewardess' backside, who replied, "don't touch me," and asked him to take his seat.
The report states Berry then went into the airplane’s bathroom after spilling an alcoholic drink on his shirt and then came out of the bathroom without a shirt. According to the report, a flight attendant asked him to put on a shirt and proceeded to assist him in getting a clean one from his carry-on bag.
The passenger continued walking through the plane for approximately 15 minutes before coming up behind a second flight attendant and proceeding to "grope her breasts,” the arrest report stated.
Restraint and arrest.
Cellphone footage of the incident posted to Twitter shows the defendant shouting profanities at the crew before throwing a punch at a male flight attendant attempting to defuse the situation. Fellow passengers came to the crew's defense to restrain Berry, and he was “taped down to the seat and tied with a seatbelt extender for the remaining flight."
The flight attendant on the receiving end of Maxwell's punch has since been identified as Jordan Galarza, who was present at the sentencing, along with a fellow flight attendant to give victim impact statements. Galarza defended the actions taken by the crew, including the use of restraint tape, as it ensured the safe arrival of the flight into Miami:
“My number role on any aircraft is to protect the passengers, including Maxwell Berry, who we did get to Miami safely that day.
“You can say the duct tape might have looked a bit barbaric and contend that maybe we went a little too overboard. However, it worked perfectly and no one got hurt because of how we did what we did.”
Upon arrival in Miami, Maxwell Berry was taken into custody and was later released on bail. He must surrender by Aug. 1, exactly one year after his arrest.
The rise in unruly passenger incidents
The incident is one of several similar altercations in the last several years. A first class passenger aboard an American Airlines flight from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Charlotte (CLT) was similarly restrained last year after she assaulted and bit a flight attendant and attempted to open the forward boarding door.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been cracking down on unruly passengers and leaving record fines as harassment of flight crews is on the rise. The latest statistics from the agency show 1,311 reports of unruly passengers this year as of May 3, 2022. Of those cases, 415 investigations were initiated, with 212 referred for law enforcement action.
Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an information-sharing mechanism with the Justice Department, seeing over three dozen unruly passengers referred to the FBI for prosecution.
Source: WPLG