An unruly passenger who caused a Beijing-bound Delta Air Lines flight to return to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in July is blaming his aggressive behavior on edible marijuana.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, 23-year-old Joseph Hudek IV consumed the edibles and drank a beer before takeoff from Seattle on July 6.
"My understanding is that it was legal to buy and consume marijuana in the state," he wrote in an affidavit. "After purchasing the edible marijuana, I ate it."
Court documents obtained by the Times show Hudek texted friends pictures of "two or three bags of marijuana edibles" prior to the flight.
Nearly an hour into the flight, Hudek, who was seated in first class, went to the bathroom and returned without a shirt. He then reached for the handle of an exit door and shouted that he wanted to get out of the plane. Hudek lashed out when flight attendants tried to stop him, punching one of them repeatedly and striking a passenger before he was eventually subdued.
"They broke two bottles of wine on his head. I tried to choke him and he just threw me off like a rag doll," an unidentified passenger told Seattle's KIRO 7 in July.
"I have never had a remotely similar incident in all my times of flying on an airplane," added Hudek, who faces four assault charges and a charge of interference with a flight crew. If convicted, he faces 20 years to life in prison.
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A federal magistrate judge released Hudek from jail Tuesday following his explanation. His trial is scheduled for February. In the meantime, Hudek has been barred from flying. The judge said he must travel from Seattle to his mother's Tampa home by car or train.
HIs mother, Linda Hudek, works for Delta and supplied him the ticket for the flight.
Unsurprisingly, drugs and air travel don't mix all that well. Last week, former NHL star Jiri Hudler was accused of doing cocaine on a Delta flight from New York to Prague before allegedly attempting to urinate on a beverage cart and making threats to the flight crew.
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