A Virginia man who tried to open the door on a passenger plane as it was descending to land in Florida last year was sentenced to one year in prison last week, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Kameron Stone, 30, of Fairfax, was restrained by an off-duty federal marshal and other passengers and wasn’t able to fully open the main cabin door to the outside of the plane as it was landing in Pensacola on April 16, 2021, officials said.
Stone was sentenced Thursday to one year in prison, a $7,500 fine and any civil penalties assessed by the Transportation Security Administration, according to court documents.
He smelled strongly of alcohol, and three small bottles of vodka fell out of his pockets during the struggle on the flight, which was traveling from Dulles International Airport to Pensacola, court records say.
Stone pleaded guilty in February to two counts — interfering with a flight crew and assault by striking and wounding in special aircraft jurisdiction, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida said.
At one point he said “I’m trying to get out of here” and reached for the cockpit door, he admitted in documents associated with the plea agreement.
Later, as the plane was making its final descent, Stone approached the front, pushed a flight attendant into a galley wall and then breached the main cabin door to the outside, the document says. The flight attendant stopped him and pulled the door handle to close the door while yelling for help.
The off-duty marshal and two other passengers restrained Stone, officials said. The incident triggered an alarm and prompted the pilots to declare an emergency. The plane landed safely.
An attorney who represented Stone did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening. Plea agreement documents say that after he was arrested, Stone told law enforcement that he wanted to apologize and had been drinking.
Stone told investigators he had one or two drinks at the airport and also drank the three bottles of vodka, which were around 1.5 ounces apiece, according to the documents. There is no mention of any alcohol being served on board.
Some airlines suspended alcohol sales early in the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and then delayed plans to resume after a surge of incidents involving unruly and disruptive passengers. American Airlines in March became the last major U.S. carrier to announce a return.
The biggest increase in incidents involving disruptive passengers happened in early 2021, but they are still above average, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. There were almost 6,000 reports of unruly passenger incidents last year, most being related to masks, the FAA has said.
