![\"Sky](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a> SkyNews.Com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A flight attendant was forced to hit a wine bottle over a man’s head after he lunged for an exit door and tried to fight with other passengers, a court has been told.<\/p>\n
Joseph Hudek, of Tampa, Florida, wore a beige jail uniform and sported a bruise below his right eye as he appeared at a US district court following the fracas on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Beijing.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old was arrested after the disturbance, which forced the plane to return to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.<\/p>\n
He did not speak during the hearing and his lawyer, Robert Flennaugh, refused to comment.<\/p>\n
Hudek was charged with interfering with a flight crew, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 (\u00a3195,000) fine, and is expected to remain in custody until a detention hearing on 13 July.<\/p>\n
The court heard a flight attendant and a passenger were taken to hospital with severe facial injuries following the incident.<\/p>\n
FBI special agent Caryn Highley said Hudek was sitting in the first row of the first-class section of the plane.<\/p>\n
He asked a flight attendant for a beer before the plane took off and was served one but did not show any signs of being drunk and ordered no other alcoholic drinks, the court heard.<\/p>\n
But about an hour into the flight, as the plane was over the Pacific Ocean northwest of Vancouver Island, Hudek went into a toilet, came out quickly, asked the attendant a question and then went back in, the agent said.<\/p>\n
Ms Highley said that when he came out again about two minutes later, Hudek suddenly lunged for the exit door, grabbed the handle and tried to open it.<\/p>\n
He was grabbed by two attendants but pushed them away, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Hudek allegedly punched one flight attendant twice in the face and struck at least one passenger in the head with a wine bottle.<\/p>\n
Another flight attendant grabbed two wine bottles and hit him over the head with each, breaking at least one of them, the court was told.<\/p>\n
One flight attendant said in a statement: “Hudek did not seem impacted by the breaking of a full litre red wine bottle over his head, and instead shouted, ‘do you know who I am?’ or something to that extent.”<\/p>\n
A passenger got Hudek in a headlock but he managed to free himself, Ms Highley said, before several passengers held him long enough to place zip-tie restraints on him.<\/p>\n
Passenger Dustin Jones said he saw a man being rolled into the terminal in a wheelchair after the plane landed.<\/p>\n
Mr Jones said: “He started yelling for help. And so he turned the wheelchair over in the middle of the airport, screaming for people to help him, just being belligerent.”<\/p>\n
Source: \u00a0<\/a> SkyNews.Com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"