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An unruly Delta Airways passenger who tried to open an emergency exit door, fought with a flight attendant midair and compelled an emergency touchdown was ordered to spend 18 months behind bars.
Mario Nikprelaj, 24, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading responsible to 1 depend of interfering with flight crew members and attendants throughout a SkyWest flight from Nebraska to Detroit, Mich. final July, the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Northern District of Iowa introduced.
Nikprelaj, a Shelby Township, Mich. native, should additionally serve a two-year time period of supervised launch after finishing his jail sentence.
Prosecutors stated Nikprelaj started inflicting bother aboard Delta Connection Flight 3612, operated by SkyWest Airways, earlier than takeoff from Eppley Airfield in Omaha.
Nikprelaj made “disruptive and impolite statements” to his fellow fliers and the flight crew. He additionally refused to buckle his seatbelt till a flight attendant satisfied him to conform.
Issues continued throughout takeoff because the 24-year-old “repeatedly took off his seat belt” regardless of being instructed to place it again on and “stood up repeatedly whereas the aircraft was ascending,” prosecutors stated.
The belligerent passenger “flipped off” an 80-year-old flight attendant who instructed him to buckle up after which “poked the flight attendant within the chest.”
He then threatened to kill the flight attendant when the crew stated that they’d report him to legislation enforcement, in keeping with prosecutors.
Nikprelaj appeared to nod off earlier than chaos erupted once more, when passengers hit emergency name buttons after seeing him mess with the emergency exit door.
Throughout the terrifying midair episode, the aged flight attendant stepped in — solely to be shoved, cursed at, and threatened once more with loss of life.
The aircraft was diverted for an emergency touchdown in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“Because the aircraft was descending, Nikprelaj once more stood up, took his shirt off, and started strolling up and down the aisle,” prosecutors stated.
Flight crew members requested passengers to assist restrain Nikprelaj, who lashed out at three passengers and tried to punch them.
Nikprelaj was taken into custody after touchdown and located a prescription bottle with 41 capsules of purported Xanax that was not in his title, prosecutors stated.
He was charged with disorderly conduct, assault, possession of prescription treatment, a tax stamp violation, and first-degree harassment, in keeping with the Cedar Rapids Police Division.
Nikprelaj’s prolonged prison previous contains convictions for assaulting a police officer, home violence, and drug-related offenses.
In 2020, when Nikprelaj was 18, he was charged after allegedly hitting his girlfriend, KCRG reported.
That very same yr, he was additionally charged with stealing a snowplow from a enterprise close to Detroit.
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