Flights are getting stranger by the day, and a 47-year-old man on his way to Orlando this week was no different.
According to a complaint filed Wednesday, first-time flier, James Finnister, was inebriated enough to invite two flight attendants to the "mile high club," a euphemism for having sex on an airplane. On Spirit Airlines Flight 693, he allegedly yanked one of them into his seat while the plane was mid-air, also asking them alarming "questions related to entering the aircraft cockpit."
He even “laid down on the floor of the aircraft in front of his seat after being moved for a third time by flight attendants due to his disruptive, intimidating behaviors,” the complaint continues. “The flight attendants were forced to stop service and pick Finnister off the floor.”
Beforehand, Finnister had taken a five-hour bus ride from Detroit, where he lives, to Louisville, Kentucky, to visit his cousin. On Tuesday morning, he was set to catch a flight to Orlando, Florida, to spend time with his family members but claimed he was "extra geeked, kinda scared." This led to Finnister taking vodka shots that resulted in his in-flight outburst.
Authorities were alerted to meet Finnister at the gate once it landed, and the man admitted that he'd taken "multiple alcoholic shots to calm his nerves prior to the flight, which he stated was his first." However, Finnister told The Daily Beast that he doesn't remember anything about the incident.
"I woke up to an FBI agent sitting next to me,” he said. “I’m trying to get up, and he says, ‘You need to sit down.’ I said, ‘What’s up? What did I do?’"
Due to the alleged disruption, Finnister's seat was also reassigned to 22A, although he'd been in the wrong seat, sitting elsewhere than his originally assigned 18D. Finnister also claimed that his "mile high club" comment was "a joke" and that he was asleep for the duration of the flight.
Finnister, who was arrested upon landing and later released, made an appearance in Orlando federal court on Wednesday afternoon but is pending trial. His travel is restricted to the state of Michigan and the Middle District of Florida, while he's also prohibited from drinking alcohol and is required to submit regular drug testing.
