Plane pest jailed for air rage
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- A Canadian who screamed obscenities, punched a flight attendant in the stomach and urinated in the aisle after he was refused alcohol during a flight has been jailed for three months.
Elguiz Santana Canales Villatoro, 39, from Canada, became drunk and abusive four hours into a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to the southern Australian city of Melbourne on December 3, prosecutors said Thursday.
When cabin crew refused to serve him any more alcoholic drinks, Villatoro screamed obscenities and punched the seats in front of him, forcing flight attendants to relocate passengers, state prosecutor Daniel Caporale told Melbourne Magistrates Court.
He then punched a flight attendant in the stomach, threw his shirt at a flight attendant's face and urinated in the aisle and against the toilet door, Caporale said.
Villatoro, whose home town was not given, pleaded guilty to three charges of assault and one of behaving in an offensive manner.
Magistrate Terry Wilson said Villatoro's behavior had been "abominable" and "unforgivable" making the trip an "upsetting experience" for passengers and crew.
Wilson told Villatoro he should have been aware, living in North America, of the fear his actions would cause "after what happened in New York where planes were used to inflict great misery on a lot of people."
On September 11, 2001 Muslim radicals crashed hijacked airliners into New York City's World Trade Center towers, causing both to collapse and killing thousands.
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