An allegedly intoxicated New York woman accused of physically and verbally attacking a JetBlue Airways crew member last week had previous run-ins while flying or trying to fly, an FBI agent testified Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Christina Elizabeth Szele, 35, of Woodside, N.Y., was on JetBlue Flight 643 from New York to San Francisco when, according to the crew and other passengers, she became uncontrollable after a flight attendant took matches and a lit cigarette from her.
Passengers are not allowed to smoke during flights. The plane’s pilot, John Shanahan, diverted the flight to Denver.
FBI agent Joel Nishida testified the June 17 incident involving Szele came in the wake of two other run-ins.
In August 2007, Szele was caught smoking in an airplane lavatory during a San Francisco-to-New York flight. She apologized and there were no further episodes on that flight.
In an incident earlier this month, she showed up intoxicated and combative at a checkpoint at New York’s JFK Airport and was turned away, said Nishida.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Watanabe, at the urging of Szele’s lawyer, Kate Stimson, agreed to let Szele return to New York under strict conditions, including not flying on commercial airliners and not consuming drugs or alcohol.
Watanabe set bail at $10,000 and set a hearing for July 11.
Nishida testified Szele told him she drank two beers at home, then was served three vodka drinks on the aircraft, which Nishida confirmed with the crew.
Crew and passengers said flight attendant Paul Whyte saw Szele smoking and took the cigarette away from her. Szele became enraged and yelled obscenities and racial epithets at Whyte, who is black, said Nishida.
She was restrained, but was able to break out of the flex cuffs. When Whyte attempted to place a second pair of cuffs on Szele, she punched him and said she would find his address and kill him, said Nishida.
She also attacked a JetBlue ground-security coordinator who happened to be on the flight and was asked to sit next to Szele, said the FBI agent.
“I don’t know why people feel that anything goes on airplanes,” said Troy Eid, U.S. attorney in Denver. “We are not going to put up with this stuff on airplanes.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, reports of unruly passengers peaked in 2004 at 304 and declined to 134 in 2006 and 133 in 2007. There were 10 as of March 17.
FAA spokesman Les Dorr stressed that passenger incidents also are reported to local law-enforcement agencies, the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration, and that the FAA statistics are only “a piece of the pie.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
