ATLANTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 10: Delta Air Lines unveils its new low-fare airline Song’s Boeing 757 interior April 10, 2003 at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Song’s maiden 757 flight will be from New York’s JFK International Airport to West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 15. Plans are to introduce 144 daily nonstop flight on the coach-only carrier by fall 2003. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images)
A Washington man who ingested methamphetamine before getting on a plane in Seattle and had what a prosecutor called a "freak out'' on board pleaded guilty Thursday to interfering with crew members after the California-bound flight was forced to land in Portland.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Douglas Smyser, of Bonney Lake, is expected to face four months on home detention when sentenced in December.
Smyser, according to prosecutors, was headed to a drug rehab Feb. 13 in Malibu, California, when he ate meth before his Compass Air flight from Seattle. Smyser began pacing the aisle, refused to sit down and told a crew member that someone had a gun, FBI agent Damon Bateson wrote in a complaint. The captain diverted the plane to Portland because the crew feared Smyser might rush the cockpit, the complaint says.
Upon descent into Portland, Smyser had to be restrained by a passenger until the flight landed, the federal agent wrote.
