Jet Blue air drama: NYC woman ruins everyones' day

By Stone Martindale Jun 20, 2008, 14:47 GMT

Imagine you are flying home or somewhere for business, and a fellow passenger takes it upon his or herself to completely disrupt your flight.

That happened to a plane full of Jet Blue passengers as a drunken, inconsiderate fool decided the rules did not apply to her, and lit up mid-flight.

An unruly JetBlue passenger from Queens who lit up on Tuesday forced the 145-passenger flight to be diverted after she became violent and uncooperative when told to stop smoking.

Christina Szele, 35, was arrested and charged with assault and interfering with a flight crew, and remains incarcerated in Denver until a hearing is scheduled for Monday.
 
Her family tells the local New York CBS affiliate that she is having a tough time becasue her long term relationship ended.  Aww.

"She does drink a lot. I think part of it is the breakup, and that's what she told me," Ladi Szele told CBS2 in New York. "She could use help.

"She was going to fly out a week ago, but she missed her flight. So they were going to put her on another flight. And they wouldn't let her board because they said she was too intoxicated."

The FBI affidavit notes that Szele, a resident of the Woodside section of Queens, boarded JetBlue Flight 643 from New York to San Francisco after having chugged a couple of beers at home.

She then moved on to vodka. Several of those drinks consumed on board.

"If she tells me three, she might have had five," Ladi Szele said to CBS2. "But the police report says one, so I believe the airline is covering up."

The tanked Queens woman then starts smoking in her seat while the flight is at cruising altitude.  Attendant Paul Whyte told Szele to stop then took the cigarette out of her mouth, telling her she was endangering the other passengers.

Why the air attendants could not taser or mace her is on the minds of many who are furious at the interruption of their flight plans.  It seems post 9/11 that someone who directly defies and endangers people should be shut down fast.

Whyte, who is black, claimed that Szele began kicking and screaming and when he tried to restrain her with flex cuffs after she'd already broken through one pair, she socked in him in the face with a closed fist and called him a "dumb m----- f-----" and racial epithets.

Whyte said that Szele said "I'm going to get you" and threatened to kill him.

The woman's behavior caused the captain to divert the flight to Denver, where Szele was apprehended by federal agents.

Inside a holding cell in Denver, however, Szele said she didn't remember smoking on the flight or hitting the flight attendant, and that if she did, she was likely drunk.

If convicted on all charges, Szele faces 20 years in prison and more than $250,000 in fines.

CBS2 discovered that Szele has had run ins with the law before, in 2007, she was arrested in Santa Barbara, Calif. on disorderly conduct charges.