CHICAGO — Two men who reportedly became unruly on a Southwest Airlines flight to Chicago after a flight attendant refused to serve them alcohol have been sentenced to prison.
Prosecutors said the two shouted, swore, made an obscene gesture and lunged at a flight attendant on the San Diego-to-Chicago flight on August 31, 2015.
Jonathan Khalid Petras, 21, and Wisam Imad Shaker, 23, charged with interfering with a flight crew, were tried in Amarillo, Tex., where the flight was diverted.
On Monday, Petras was sentenced to seven months in prison; Shaker was sentenced to five months.
The two, part of a soccer club, were going to Chicago for a conference, according to a San Diego television station report.
At the time, the FBI said the men began by refusing to put their seat backs and tray tables up before takeoff, according to a Dallas Morning News report. Later, after a flight attendant asked them to quiet down, they responded, ‘We can be as loud as we want and do whatever the [expletive] we want on here. You can’t make us listen.’”
After a flight attendant denied them drinks, they “became aggressive by lunging forward" and called another flight attendant "a pig." They also harassed other female passengers, calling one "ugly," according to the FBI.
Attorneys for the men argued that there was racism involved, saying that the two were part of a group speaking in their Aramaic language and were misunderstood.
Two passengers testified that they did not find the defendants' behavior unruly.
After the flight was diverted to Amarillo, it continued on to Midway Airport.
