US man who went berserk and tried to open plane door during first-class flight to Beijing is jailed for two years

A Florida man who went berserk last July on a Seattle-to-Beijing flight, beating passengers and crew members with a wine bottle before being subdued, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison.

“I’m deeply sorry for everything that’s happened,” Joseph D. Hudek IV, 24, said in a Seattle federal courtroom filled with his supporters and Delta Air Lines employees and passengers. Hudek had pleaded guilty in February to one count of interfering with a flight-crew member and three counts of assault on an aircraft.

Defence attorney Robert Flennaugh II told US District Judge John Coughenour that Hudek had been a model citizen for all but two hours of his life. He had taken 193 prior flights all without incident, Flennaugh said.

But on July 6, 2017, Hudek wanted to sleep on the overseas flight and ingested at least three, and maybe more, 10-gram marijuana candies before boarding the airliner, Flennaugh said. Hudek suffered delusions, hallucinations and “marijuana-induced psychosis,” he said.

Assistant US Attorney Stephen Hobbs likened the case to a person who chooses to drink and drive, endangering other motorists. But in this instance, Hudek put hundreds of people in danger.