A military veteran who has suffered from alcohol dependency since the death of his father has been sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to punching and shoving a Delta Air Lines flight attendant on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York JFK last May.
Shachar Bivas, 44, of Long Island, has also been fined $9,500 for interfering with the duties of a flight crew member during the 12-hour flight from Israel and will have to surrender to authorities on August 2 to complete his prison sentence.
The mid-flight punchup started after one of the flight attendants declined to serve Bivas a second vodka drink because he was already visibly intoxicated. That decision, however, infuriated Bivas, prosecutors had claimed.
Bivas approached another flight attendant and asked for an alcoholic beverage and a cigarette. The crew member told Bivas that smoking wasn’t allowed onboard, and rather than serving him any more alcohol, the flight attendant offered Bivas a coffee to help him sober up.
Bivas punched the galley after being refused a drink but flight attendants were initially able to calm him down and get him to return to his seat. Sometime later, however, Bivas approached a flight attendant and “forcibly grabbed, pushed and punched” the crew member, tearing their uniform in the process and bruising their arm.
Another flight attendant stepped in and helped to restrain Bivas while one of the pilots stepped out of the flight deck to assess and manage the situation.
To make matters worse, half of the crew were on their break at the time that Bivas went on the rampage but the pilots declined a request from the flight attendants to perform an emergency diversion to have Bivas offloaded.
The flight continued onto New York JFK, where it landed safely, and Bivas was taken into custody. Bivas was indicted last August, and he pleaded guilty in December. His sentence was passed on Thursday.
“Military veteran” has nothing to with his behavior.
You beat me to the punch, this detail adds nothing to the article.
You’re right Chris; it was gratuitous, clearly designed for click bait appeal. I was going to say the same thing.