Delta plane makes emergency landing after passenger assaults flight attendant and air marshal, police say

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by anyonmoussource

(CNN) A Delta flight from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles made an emergency landing in Oklahoma City on Thursday night after a passenger allegedly assaulted two people, authorities said.

"The passenger assaulted a flight attendant," Oklahoma City Police Capt. Arthur Gregory told CNN. An air marshal on board Flight 324 also allegedly was assaulted while attempting to subdue the passenger, who was eventually restrained.

The Boeing 757-200 aircraft landed at Will Rogers World Airport at around 7:40 p.m. local time, Gregory said. The man was removed from the flight and interviewed by the FBI.

Oklahoma City Police said on Friday that the man was arrested and charged with public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

Jail records show that Ariel Pennington, 35, of Washington, DC, was booked at 11:16 p.m. into the Oklahoma City jail and released Friday morning at 4:54 a.m.

SpindriftRascal on December 10th, 2021 at 13:45 UTC »

Somebody’s going to prison. Interfering with a flight crew and AFO. See you in 15-24 months.

Edit: It’s very fact-dependent, but if he’s federally charged and if he is convicted (including by a plea), and if he has a low criminal history, I’d expect he comes in somewhere around 8-15 on the sentencing offense level, which gets him anywhere from probation to about two years.

Anyone who wants to play around with hypotheticals in any federal criminal case can get a decent sense of things here:

https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/guidelines-manual/2021/GLMFull.pdf

capnJayd on December 10th, 2021 at 13:10 UTC »

Ooo federal offence, nice

newarkian on December 10th, 2021 at 12:44 UTC »

Air Marshal - this is the first unruly passenger story that an Air Marshal was actually on board the plane.