By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
A FRACAS BETWEEN two passengers on an Air Jamaica flight from Sangster International to Los Angeles on Tuesday night forced the plane to return to Montego Bay after about 180 miles, costing the airline company thousands of United States dollars and "throwing out" the schedule on that route for several days.
The forced landing of the aircraft endangered the lives of everyone on board as the plane was forced to land with weight exceeding the amount the plane should land with.
As a result, a 25-year-old accountant of California, Mellisa Wiegele, was arrested and charged. She pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on an aeroplane and was fined when she was brought to the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday. She was fined the maximum $50,000 or six months in prison under Jamaican law. The Clerk of Courts, Mrs. Sandria Wong Small, told the court that as a result Air Jamaica will lose thousands of United States dollars and their schedule on that route has been thrown out for several days.
The circumstances as they were outlined in the court were that the plane was about 180 miles from Montego Bay at around 6:00 p.m. when an altercation developed between Wiegele and a male passenger and she became boisterous and slapped him in the face.
Despite being spoken to several times by the crew of the plane, Wiegele refused to calm down, the court heard, and the plane was forced to turn around and return to Sangster International.
The accused told the court in her defence that the passenger in front of her was having some problems with his seat and kept pushing it back against her and her boyfriend, who asked the man to stop, and if he had a problem.
She said she became afraid when the man responded by saying they would have a problem when they got to LAX as he was going to kill them.
She apologised to the court for her actions saying it "will never ever, ever happen again."
In handing down the maximum sentence possibly under Jamaican laws, Resident Magistrate Ms Valerie Stephens chided Wiegele for her behaviour, saying she would never behave that way on an American Airlines flight but apparently did not think it was a big deal to do so on an Air Jamaica flight.
