A Washington state man was sentenced last week to spend a year in home confinement for threatening passengers and groping a woman during an Anchorage-bound Alaska Airlines flight last spring.
Adam Seymour, 38, drank alcohol before and during the flight after it left from Seattle on April 5, according to sentencing memorandums filed by both attorneys in the case. Seymour was heavily intoxicated when he made sexual comments and groped the woman sitting in the middle seat next to him, the memorandums said.
At one point, he also lit a cigarette and began smoking during the flight, according to an affidavit written by an FBI agent and filed with charges. The woman he’d groped sought help from passengers seated in front of them, who happened to be off-duty police officers, the affidavit said.
The woman was moved to a new seat and a man was seated next to Seymour, the affidavit said. He eventually pushed the man and threatened to kill another passenger, it said. He was restrained and moved to the jump seat at the front of the plane, according to the affidavit.
Seymour broke free from the hand restraints and had to be restrained again during the flight, the affidavit said. He was arrested once the plane landed.
Seymour has a long history of alcohol abuse, and his actions that day were caused by his intoxication, his attorney wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Seymour pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of interference with a flight crew in September. His attorney requested a sentence of home confinement and the assistant U.S. attorney requested that Seymour be sentenced to a year in prison, according to the sentencing memorandums.
There has been an increased number of passengers disrupting flights with threatening or violent behavior in recent years, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Such behavior is especially problematic for Alaskans because air travel is necessary, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ainsley McNerney wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
“Alaskans often have no alternative to aircraft travel to get to their homes, seek medical treatment, or other resources. It stands to reason that passengers aboard an aircraft should be able to engage in travel free from harassment and assault from other passengers,” it said.
U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred sentenced Seymour to spend a year on home confinement, followed by two years of supervised release, according to federal court records.