A passenger who became “physically combative” on a flight from London to New Jersey in March was ordered to pay more than $20,000 to United Airlines, according to court documents.
The documents, obtained by NBC News, share that Alexander Michael Dominic MacDonald, 30, was on Flight 883 on March 1 when a flight attendant heard him arguing loudly with his girlfriend.
One of the members of the flight crew reportedly approached MacDonald and asked him to lower his voice, a request he first complied with before he began yelling at the flight attendant minutes later, the complaint said.
“When flight attendants asked MacDonald to be quiet and attempted to calm him, he became belligerent, threatening, and intimidating towards them,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.
It wasn’t made clear what caused MacDonald to escalate the situation to yelling, but eventually, another member of the flight crew stepped in between the two.
According to the document, the flight crew member tried to calm MacDonald down, but he “continued to be verbally and physically aggressive,” and, at one point, he asked the crew member “if he would like to ‘have a problem?’”
MacDonald was then allegedly heard making threats that he was going to “mess up the plane,” the document shared, The New York Post reported. The documents also said he put his hands on the crew member’s shoulders and backed them into a corner.
Thanks to the help of another passenger, the crew member was able to restrain MacDonald and place him in flex cuffs for the remainder of the flight as he continued to be “non-compliant” for the remainder of the flight, the document shared.
Because “MacDonald’s conduct was a threat to the safety of the crew and passengers,” the pilot decided to divert the plane to Maine five hours after the initial incident began.
MacDonald was arrested for his actions and is accused of assault and interference with flight crew members and attendants.
He pled guilty to the latter charges and was ordered to pay $20,638 to United Airlines in restitution.
NBC News reported that he is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service for the “transfer to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purposes of deportation.”