An unruly Delta Airlines passenger who tried to open an emergency exit door, fought with a flight attendant midair and forced an emergency landing was ordered to spend 18 months behind bars.
Mario Nikprelaj, 24, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants during a SkyWest flight from Nebraska to Detroit, Mich. last July, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa announced.
Nikprelaj, a Shelby Township, Mich. native, must also serve a two-year term of supervised release after completing his prison sentence.
Prosecutors said Nikprelaj began causing trouble aboard Delta Connection Flight 3612, operated by SkyWest Airlines, before takeoff from Eppley Airfield in Omaha.
Nikprelaj made “disruptive and rude statements” to his fellow fliers and the flight crew. He also refused to buckle his seatbelt until a flight attendant convinced him to comply.
Problems continued during takeoff as the 24-year-old “repeatedly took off his seat belt” despite being told to put it back on and “stood up repeatedly while the plane was ascending,” prosecutors said.
The belligerent passenger “flipped off” an 80-year-old flight attendant who told him to buckle up and then “poked the flight attendant in the chest.”
He then threatened to kill the flight attendant when the crew said that they would report him to law enforcement, according to prosecutors.
Nikprelaj appeared to nod off before chaos erupted again, when passengers hit emergency call buttons after seeing him mess with the emergency exit door.
During the terrifying midair episode, the elderly flight attendant stepped in — only to be shoved, cursed at, and threatened again with death.
The plane was diverted for an emergency landing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“As the plane was descending, Nikprelaj again stood up, took his shirt off, and began walking up and down the aisle,” prosecutors said.
Flight crew members asked passengers to help restrain Nikprelaj, who lashed out at three passengers and tried to punch them.
Nikprelaj was taken into custody after landing and found a prescription bottle with 41 pills of purported Xanax that was not in his name, prosecutors said.
He was charged with disorderly conduct, assault, possession of prescription medication, a tax stamp violation, and first-degree harassment, according to the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Nikprelaj’s lengthy criminal past includes convictions for assaulting a police officer, domestic violence, and drug-related offenses.
In 2020, when Nikprelaj was 18, he was charged after allegedly hitting his girlfriend, KCRG reported.
That same year, he was also charged with stealing a snowplow from a business near Detroit.
Read the full article here