United passenger charged for alleged drunken behavior on flight Posted 1/23/2007 USA Today Online.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A United Airlines passenger faces federal charges for allegedly making statements about a hijacking, trying to open a cabin door and fighting with flight attendants while aboard a flight from Boston to San Francisco.
Erin Callahan Lambert, 28, who apparently was intoxicated during Flight 179 on Sunday, was taken into custody after the plane landed at San Francisco International Airport, authorities said. She was charged Monday with assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with the performance of duties of flight crewmembers.
About halfway through the six-hour, non-stop flight, Lambert got up, walked to the back of the plane and began talking on her cellphone, FBI Special Agent Brian Gilhooly wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
When two flight attendants told Lambert to turn off the phone and return to her seat, she "refused and became combative," Gilhooly wrote. Asked who she was talking to, she said "I'm calling 911 because the plane is being hijacked," the affidavit said.
Lambert eventually returned to her seat, but later she tried to take her luggage, including her pet dog in a carrier, to the restroom, according to the affidavit. When told to leave her belongings at her seat, she said, "No, you are going to have to kill me and my dog," then locked herself in the restroom, Gilhooly wrote.
Lambert exited moments later and "started walking rapidly toward the front of the airplane," saying, "I'm getting off the aircraft," he wrote.
Flight attendants and passengers stopped her as she headed for a cabin door and forced her into a seat, where the plane's purser handcuffed her, according to the affidavit. She managed to wriggle free from those handcuffs, so plastic ties were placed on her wrists, it said.
"During the entire assault, Ms. Lambert was yelling profanities, cursing and spitting on the flight attendants and other passengers," Gilhooly wrote.
Lambert, a Bay Area resident, was turned over to San Francisco airport police upon arrival at SFO, where she refused to be interviewed by the FBI and requested an attorney, the affidavit said.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. Fly the Friendly Skies of 
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