Man will get almost 2 years in jail for making an attempt to open emergency door throughout chaotic LAX-to-DC flight

A 52-year-old man who needed to be subdued by passengers and flight attendants when he tried to open an exit door throughout a chaotic American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., has been sentenced to 19 months in federal jail.

Juan Remberto Rivas of Los Angeles was sentenced Wednesday, July 31, by U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark within the Western District of Missouri in reference to the Feb. 13, 2022, flight that was diverted to Kansas City International Airport.

Rivas, who pleaded responsible on Jan. 23 to at least one depend of interfering with flight crew members and flight attendants, was ordered to pay $64,434 in restitution to American Airlines. He won’t be eligible for parole.

At some level throughout Flight 1775, Rivas acquired up from his seat, went to the entrance of the airplane and commenced arguing with a flight attendant, FBI Special Agent Thomas Richard Malena mentioned in a probable-cause affidavit. Rivas advised one other flight attendant in Spanish individuals have been trying to harm him, had adopted him onto the airplane, and that he had heard the people harming his household over the telephone.

Rivias then grabbed some plastic silverware from a service cart, positioned it in his shirt sleeve and held it like a shank, the affidavit states. He additionally picked up a small champagne bottle, tried to interrupt it, shoved the service cart into one of many flight attendants, and tried to open an emergency exit door by lifting the deal with.

“The flight attendants advised Rivas to place the deal with down and he was yelling ‘no’,” the affidavit states.

A passenger advised Malena that Rivas was pulling so onerous that the door moved away from the body 2 to three inches.

Eventually, one other flight attendant grabbed a coffee pot from the again of the airplane and cracked Rivas twice over the top.