A scream from the bathroom of an Alaska Airlines flight came from a man who federal prosecutors say became violent as soon as a nurse tried to help — leading to a bloody and chaotic scene.
Now the man, a 38-year-old Minnesota resident, has been sentenced to five years’ probation for assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with the normal duties of a flight crew, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska announced May 23 known.
A federal defender assigned to represent him, Samuel Eilers, declined a May 24 request for comment from McClatchy News.
After the man screamed from the bathroom during the flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage on June 24, he got off and a flight attendant smelled a “strange, burnt, metallic” odor, according to court documents.
He then walked shakily to his seat, but walked past it and became unresponsive, according to court documents. After a nurse on the plane checked him and thought he had overdosed, a flight attendant grabbed the opioid reversal drug Narcan, prosecutors said.
The man became alert when the nurse tried to give him the drug with the help of the flight crew and a male passenger, prosecutors said.
He began “struggling violently” when the nurse placed the Narcan in his nose and fought against those who tried to help, leading to flight attendants holding his arms and a passenger holding his legs, according to a sentencing memorandum.
The man then grabbed or pushed the flight attendant who picked up the Narcan by her throat, causing her necklace to break, prosecutors said.
By the time two more passengers arrived to help, his nose and mouth were bleeding, according to the sentencing memo.
“Several flight attendants and passengers came into contact with Burch’s blood, including one passenger who had some in his mouth,” prosecutors said.
The nurse gave him two doses of Narcan, but he continued to try to break free, according to the sentencing.
As a result, the flight attendant he is accused of restraining his ankles and wrists with flexible restraints, prosecutors said.
Passenger arrested twice
When the plane arrived in Anchorage, the man was arrested and spent six days in federal custody, according to prosecutors.
Alaska Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 24.
“Upon his return to Minnesota, he was arrested and held in state custody for 72 days for violating his parole by leaving the state without permission,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the news release.
After pleading guilty in December, he violated the terms of his pretrial release in March, resulting in another arrest, prosecutors said.
He has since been detained and spent 66 days in federal custody, according to prosecutors.
‘Not proud’
The man had a history of “crippling drug addiction,” which “worsened” after his arrest in the case, Eilers wrote on behalf of his client in a sentencing memorandum.
He flew to Alaska with his stepson for a fishing trip they had both planned for “more than a year,” Eilers said.
Two hours after the flight took off, he “smoked a synthetic opiate” in the plane’s bathroom, the conviction said.
Prior to sentencing, he completed a 45-day outpatient treatment program, Eilers wrote in the sentencing memo.
In a March 22 letter to a federal judge, the man wrote:
“I fully acknowledge my role in the events that led to these allegations. I am not proud of what I have done, of my drug use and the impact it has had on other people.”
When an attack occurs on an aircraft, the FBI is responsible for the investigation.
“Criminal conduct aboard an aircraft, such as interference with a flight crew, endangers the safety of all passengers and is a federal crime,” Rebecca Day, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Anchorage field office, said in a statement. a statement.
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