A 33-year-old American Airlines passenger who jumped on a beverage cart and stripped off his clothes faces the threat of spending the next 20 years in prison after admitting to interfering with flight crew on a flight from Seattle to Charlotte in January.
Adam Alexander Williams of Auburn, Washington pleaded guilty to a single charge of interference with flight members and attendants on Thursday after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Along with a maximum 20-year jail sentence, Williams also faces the threat of a $25,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
During the roughly four-hour flight from Seattle to North Carolina, Williams jumped over passengers in his row and onto a beverage cart that was being pushed b a flight attendant down the aisle.
As he came off the cart, he fell into the flight attendant and pushed her into a seats, pushing drinks and cups to the floor in the process.
Williams’ erratic behavior continued with him running up and down the aisle. Witnesses say one of the flight attendants appeared distressed and traumatized.
Another crew member managed to calm Williams down and sat him down in his seat but within 10 minutes Williams started to shout obscenities. A group of off-duty Marines who happened to be on the flight were moved to sit around Williams but after just 10 minutes of calm, Williams stood up and started screaming while stripping off his clothes.
At this point, the Captain decided to divert the aircraft and a short time later the plane landed in Billings where law enforcement removed Williams.
The number of unruly passenger incidents spike in early 2021 according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which collates data reported to it from U.S. airlines. Unruly passenger incidents dropped sharply after the federal face mask mandate was repealed.
The unruly passenger rate has now fallen below a baseline set in the last three months of 2020. The latest FAA stats show an unruly passenger incidence rate of 1.7 incidents per 10,000 flights for the week ending June 12, 2022.
The baseline rate is 2.45 incidents per 10,000 flights.
