Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

Air passenger 'beyond control,' court records say

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 20, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Updated June 20, 2008 at 1:03 a.m.

Text size  
Christina Szele, 35, smoked on plane, sparking dispute.

Christina Szele, 35, smoked on plane, sparking dispute.

Related Links

Related Stories

More Local News

More stories »

Chaos broke out aboard a JetBlue plane after a flight attendant snatched a cigarette out of a woman's mouth, court records say.

Christina E. Szele, 35, is accused of flouting no-smoking rules and swearing and screaming racist slurs at a flight attendant, whom she allegedly socked in the jaw.

Szele, of Woodside, N.Y., was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Denver with assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight crew.

The pilot diverted the New York-to-San Francisco JetBlue flight to Denver International Airport on Tuesday. Frightened flight attendants and passengers said that a kicking, cursing woman was endangering everyone aboard, according to an FBI agent's arrest warrant statement.

Veteran flight attendants told the FBI that they never had faced such a disruptive passenger. A fellow traveler said that the woman was "beyond control" and "putting the plane in danger by thrashing about."

Flight attendants said they restrained the woman with plastic flex cuffs but that she slipped free to punch the flight attendant and threatened to kill him, the FBI statement said.

The ordeal began when flight attendant Dorotea Negoescu seized a cigarette and matchbook from the woman as she waited to use the airplane lavatory.

Smoking is illegal on U.S. commercial flights, with violators facing a $1,000 fine and a $2,000 fine for anyone tampering with a smoke detector in the lavatories.

Flight attendant Naomi Garcia then found the woman "nonchalantly smoking at her seat," court records stated.

Flight attendant Paul Whyte said he snatched the cigarette out of the woman's mouth, telling her that she was "endangering everyone on the flight."

Whyte said that the woman accused him of punching her in the mouth, but the flight attendant told the FBI that he didn't touch her.

Because the woman was sitting in an emergency-row exit, Whyte told her for safety reasons that she would have to move to a front row. She began to kick and scream, Whyte told the FBI, so he bound her hands with the flex cuffs.

The woman slipped free and threw the plastic cuffs, allegedly hitting Garcia in the chest. When Whyte returned to place a second pair of cuffs on the woman, she allegedly punched him in the jaw.

The woman, who is white, then began swearing and shouting racist slurs at Whyte, who is black, according to several witnesses.

Whyte said he felt threatened when the woman said, "I'm going to get you" and threatened to kill him, according to court records.

During the struggle, flight attendant Garcia had an asthma attack and needed to use an inhaler.

The cuffed woman kept swearing, kicking a bulkhead wall and stomping the floor until the plane landed in Denver, witnesses said.

In a DIA holding cell, the woman told the FBI that she'd had two beers before the flight and three vodka drinks on board, but that she has a "high tolerance" for alcohol and felt fine.

She didn't recall smoking at her seat or hitting anyone, the FBI statement said. "If she did, she had to have been drunk during the flight. She blamed the crew for serving her the three vodka drinks," the FBI agent wrote.

A flight attendant said that the woman was just served one drink.

The woman said "she normally curses a lot" and "often uses the 'F' word," the FBI agent wrote.

Passenger Jason Caron said that the woman was "completely out of line" and "disruptive beyond control."

Szele, who is being held at Jefferson County jail, is scheduled for a detention hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver.

Comments

  • June 20, 2008

    4:29 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    LOUIE writes:

    "...I'm your huckleberry..." , Ms. Bonney, my name is Clyde; could I introduce you to Vicky, my .45?

  • June 20, 2008

    6:33 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    HolierThanThou writes:

    Here's my suggestion for the headline:

    Drunk Woman Brawls with Flight Crew

    Yesterday, we were reading how she "terrorized" the flight and how the whole dust up started over smoking. Dude, she was drunk. And I'm also certain that she didn't "frighten" all the passengers on board. Some perhaps, but many like myself would have enjoyed this in-flight entertainment, only to be annoyed with the delay in reaching our destination.

    She wasn't even "out of control", at least not for long. They put her in restraints and she continued to make a ruckus. I'm sure it was mild compared to some of the colicky babies I've sat next to. Those memories still cause pain to my eardrums.

    Actually, I pity the poor girl. By now she's awoken to a horrendous hangover and probably doesn't even remember why she's in Jefferson County's finest gray-bar hotel.

  • June 20, 2008

    8:57 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    MsValeriah writes:

    Wrong. She's a drunken bigoted dirtbag, and her actions were just plain stupid and irresponsible. Hope she learns from suffering the consequences.

  • June 20, 2008

    9:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    VoiceOfTheRockies writes:

    She is probably Bipolar and self medicating. She will be fine once she finds the right combination of meds (assuming she enters into a rehab facility).

  • June 20, 2008

    9:52 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Fitzy31 writes:

    What a classic mug shot! She looks totally plastered.

  • June 20, 2008

    10:04 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    OhBrother writes:

    ummm, If you act a nut on a plane to the point they have to handcuff you and divert the entire flight then it isn't just "mild". Why would you "pity the poor girl"?

    Holierthanthou- My idea of in-flight entertainment is a movie or my PSP not some drunk lunatic thrashing about so wildly that they have to restrain her to prevent from attacking crew members and possibly others. I hope I'm never on a flight with you because I could only imagine how "entertaining" you might find someone (or more than one) with a box cutter and a bad attitude. No reason to take crazy people seriously, right?

  • June 20, 2008

    12:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    fishtanksamurai writes:

    First rule of fight club, you don't talk about fight club!

  • June 20, 2008

    12:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    fishtanksamurai writes:

    First rule of fight club, you don't talk about fight club!

  • June 20, 2008

    2:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    samsmargolis writes:

    San Francisco owes Denver big time, now.

  • June 20, 2008

    2:48 p.m.

    BroncoRick69 writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • June 20, 2008

    2:48 p.m.

    BroncoRick69 writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • June 20, 2008

    3:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    gr8fuldude writes:

    BroncoRick - I think you've been drinking as well. As the saying goes, "I wouldn't do her with yours"...She pretty much sums up why there are no good women in NY.

    "With a face like that, you got nothing to laugh about"... - R. Stewart.

  • June 20, 2008

    3:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    gr8fuldude writes:

    Actually, a friend of mine has a description of women like this as "physically incapable of getting any" because by the time the average guy drank enough to make her look appealing, he would be unable to perform. Maybe that's why she is so unhappy.

  • June 20, 2008

    4:33 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    happymike44 writes:

    It's not her fault that she is as attractive as a 100 mile of mud fencing.
    Well so much for flying the friendly sky like the part where she blamed them for causing her intoxication.
    Get thee to a detox facility so you will not look so stupid in your mug shot.
    Well she is lucky that the other passengers didn't beat the crap out of her.
    Remember a few years back when the guy acted all weird on board and the passengers snuffed him.
    She is lucky this didn't happen to her.

  • June 21, 2008

    6:57 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Janis writes:

    20 years in prison??? That's plain ridiculous. I can't believe the lack of compassion from some of the posters here. As if none of you have ever had problems in your life and acted in a way that you were ashamed of afterwards. Airlines are out of control these days; flight attendants are nasty, rude and provoke incidents. Do you have any idea how many CELEBRITIES act this way on flights and get away with it? If this had been Whitney Houston she would have received a slap on the wrist.

    Try some compassion folks...karma can be a b****