Man sentenced for interfering with commercial flight crew

A man who disrupted an American Airlines flight from the Los Angeles area, forcing it to make an unscheduled landing in Lubbock, Texas, has been sentenced to 36 months in federal custody.

Jerry Ba Nguyen (win) pleaded guilty in February 2017 in district court to one count of interference with flight crew members and attendants. The incident happened aboard a Sept. 22 flight from Ontario, California, to Dallas-Fort Worth. The Boeing 737 was carrying 143 passengers and six crew members.

The 25-year-old Las Vegas man had behaved erratically since the start of the flight, but his proximity to the cockpit door and suicidal statements finally led to fellow passengers subduing him until the captain made an emergency landing.

Nguyen has been in custody since his arrest in September 2016.