Unruly Passenger Must Pay United Airlines $20,638 for Disrupting Flight

A passenger who was yelling and became physically aggressive on a United Airlines flight from London to Newark in March, prompting the crew to divert the plane to Bangor, Maine, has been ordered to pay the airline $20,638 in restitution, federal prosecutors said.

The passenger, Alexander Michael Dominic MacDonald, 30, of Chelmsford, England, was also sentenced on April 25 to time already served, prosecutors said.

Mr. MacDonald had been in custody since March 1, when he was arrested after his flight landed at Bangor International Airport. He pleaded guilty on March 22 to one count of interfering with a flight crew, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

"He apologized for his actions in court and looks forward to returning home to his family in England," Mr. MacDonald's lawyer, Matthew D. Morgan, said in an email on Tuesday.

According to an F.B.I. affidavit, about 160 passengers and 10 crew members were aboard United Airlines Flight 883, which left Heathrow Airport near London on the morning of March 1 and was headed to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Several hours into the flight, the purser, or lead flight attendant, heard Mr. MacDonald "arguing loudly" with his girlfriend and asked him to lower his voice, the affidavit says. He agreed to do so, but minutes later the purser found him yelling again, this time at another flight attendant, the affidavit says.

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