Passenger free on bail after smoking melee on JetBlue flight
Court date set for July in disturbance case
Rocky Mountain News
Published June 25, 2008 at 7:25 p.m.
Photo by Marc Piscotty / Special to the Rocky
Christina Elizabeth Szele
A woman accused of punching a crew member on a JetBlue flight from New York to San Francisco has been released on $10,000 bail.
Christina Elizabeth Szele, of Woodside, N.Y., was freed Wednesday.
She had been held since June 17, when the pilot diverted the plane to Denver International Airport after an altercation.
The 35-year-old Szele shouted obscenities and racial epithets at a flight attendant who tried to stop her from smoking, the FBI said.
Authorities say crew members restrained her with plastic handcuffs, but she broke them and punched the flight attendant in the jaw.
Szele faces charges of assault and interfering with flight attendants. Her next court appearance is July 11.
The magistrate who set Szele's bail ordered her not to travel on planes or drink alcohol.
FBI Special Agent Joel Nishida testified in court Monday that Szele became violent after flight attendants repeatedly stopped her from smoking on board.
Things reportedly got worse when the flight attendant asked her to move from an emergency exit row because he was worried about her safety.
"She was out of control," the agent recounted, ". . . kicking, screaming (and) yelling racial epithets and profanities."
Szele, who is white, reportedly used profanity and racial slurs against the black flight attendant who stopped her smoking before punching him in the jaw.
"I'm going to find out where you live. I'm going to kill you," Szele allegedly yelled, the FBI agent testified.
Nishida said Szele had a history of drug- and alcohol-fueled disturbances, including another June incident at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport where she was turned away from a security checkpoint for allegedly being intoxicated and using profanity.
In August 2007, Szele was caught illegally smoking in a lavatory on a San Francisco-to-New York JetBlue flight, Nishida said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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June 25, 2008
8:11 p.m.
Suggest removal
superbad writes:
The face that launched a thousand Greyhound buses. Someone at the Convention and Vistors' Bureau: please make her leave before the DNC. She'll frighten the delegates.
June 25, 2008
8:31 p.m.
Suggest removal
coloradoorbust writes:
The term "BUTTFACE" comes to mind
June 25, 2008
11:18 p.m.
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CyberHostage writes:
Maybe smoking is her way of compensating for not making the Olympic Figure Skating Team.
June 26, 2008
1:46 a.m.
Suggest removal
happymike44 writes:
I am sure she is the next hostess for the Denver Visitors booth.
Talk about a face for radio what happened to her?
She looked better in her mug shot.
If she is going for the pity vote,she has my vote.
See what drinking can do to you man that's a hard life on that face.
June 26, 2008
6:34 a.m.
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Francesca writes:
Nice. Chick. Not.
June 26, 2008
6:56 a.m.
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hdfresh writes:
I think she should be banned from traveling on any airline. Make her take the train or the bus to teach her a lesson.
June 26, 2008
7:51 a.m.
Suggest removal
CUBUFFINSUNDEVILCOUNTRY writes:
I didn't know Todd Rundgren has Breasts? Now that's bad. an un-attractive guy, and SHE looks like him. A face only a.....nah, Ma doesn't like it either
June 26, 2008
8:45 a.m.
Suggest removal
SickNTired writes:
Eeewwww!
June 26, 2008
8:49 a.m.
Suggest removal
MsValeriah writes:
I realize I'm repeating myself, but three words describe this woman: drunken, bigoted, pond-scum. No man in his right mind would go anywhere near this loser.