Aviation

Man charged with peeing on passengers during flight from Anchorage to Portland

An Oregon man was jailed and is facing charges after police say he urinated on several passengers on an early morning JetBlue flight from Anchorage to Portland International Airport Friday.

According to CBS news affiliate KOIN6, police say Jeff D. Rubin, 27, had been asleep for most of the flight, which left Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage at about 12 a.m.

About 30 minutes before landing in Portland, he stood up and began peeing between the crack in the seat in front of him and onto other passengers.

At one point, Rubin lost his balance, fell backward and "urinate(d) upwards, which got the passengers and seats next to him as well as some other passengers' personal belongings," a police report says.

According to Suzanna Caldwell, an Alaska Dispatch News reporter who happened to be on the same flight, the incident disrupted an otherwise normal three-hour trip.

Caldwell, seated two rows in front of Rubin on the other side of the plane, was not urinated on, but saw garbage bags, paper towels and urine in the area.

"Everyone was actually pretty calm," Caldwell said. Passengers were walking in the aisles around Rubin and the flight attendants were huddled up, Caldwell said.

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"It's not like anyone was screaming. I didn't even realize anything had happened until the flight attendants came up to me and told me police were going to come onboard."

The plane landed and was met by police. Rubin didn't fight with the officers, but they had to wake him up, as he appeared to have fallen asleep again, Caldwell said.

"At one point the officer was like, 'Who got peed on?' " Caldwell said.

Rubin spent about five hours in jail and was charged with second-degree criminal mischief and offensive littering.

Megan Edge

Megan Edge is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

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