Nevada man sentenced for assault on Las Vegas-Seattle flight

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 41-year-old Nevada man has been ordered to serve six months house confinement and pay greater than $49,000 in restitution after pleading responsible to assault and interference with crew members throughout a 2019 flight from Seattle to Las Vegas.

David Parkhurst of Gardnerville was faraway from the airplane and arrested in Reno on Oct. 31, 2019 after his flight was compelled to make an unscheduled touchdown at Reno-Tahoe Worldwide Airport, prosecutors stated.

He pleaded responsible in February to at least one rely of interference with the flight crew members and attendants and one rely of straightforward assault on an plane.

In addition to house confinement and restitution, U.S. District Decide Miranda Du sentenced him on Friday to 5 years’ probation.

Prosecutors say he touched a feminine passenger’s interior thigh with out consent, then began to punch her a number of instances after she “smacked his hand away.” Flight attendants and different passengers then intervened to cease him from punching her and restrain him earlier than the airplane landed, they stated.

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