A young man faces not only the paddywagon but up to 20 years behind bars after refusing to wear a mask, throwing a beverage can at another passenger, and mooning flight attendants when confronted on a Delta flight from Ireland to New York. For good measure, he also got in the face of the captain with a closed fist.
Passenger Accused Of Mooning Flight Attendants Among Other Transgressions On Delta Flight From Dublin To New York
The incident occurred onboard Delta Air Lines flight 45, from Dublin (DUB) to New York (JFK) on January 7, 2022. 29-year-old Shane McInerney is accused of the following:
- refusing to wear a mask (he was asked “dozens” of times to put it on)
- kicking the seat of the passenger in front of him
- throwing a can of soda at the head of another passenger
- entering the business class cabin to complain about the food
- while being escorted back to his seat in economy class, pulling down his pants and underwear and mooning flight attendants (and passengers)
- when confronted by captain (over Atlantic), holding up his fist up to the captain’s face and placing his hat on the captain’s head twice
- during final approach to JFK, standing up and refusing to be seated
JUST IN: A Delta passenger faces 20 years in prison after he allegedly refused to wear a mask, went to first class and mooned a flight attendant, put his hat on the captain’s head, and then threw a soda can at another passenger. Shane McInerney is out on 20,000 bond. pic.twitter.com/BmmJ5MzFNG
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) January 21, 2022
McInerney now faces up to 20 years in prison and has been released on a $20,000 bond.
As for his punishment, his conduct seems fairly egregious. The mooning is not the big issue: it is assaulting another passenger with a beverage can and creating a hazard for other passengers by standing up during landing and acting erratically onboard. It is not clear if alcohol was involved.
Finally, I do wish to address the term paddywagon and make clear it is not meant in any sort of deragoratory sense. Irish Americans faced immense and disgusting discrimination in the mid 19th century in the USA. There is some debate as to wear the term “paddywagon” originated, but it either refers to the disproportionate number of police officers in New York who were Irish or the disproportionate number of Irish-Americans who were arrested.
And why did I mention the young man was Irish? First, because he refers to himself as an “Irish lad” on his Instagram page, where I pulled the pictures above. I would also consider it a compliment rather than any sort of veiled insult: over the last two years we’ve seen the vast majority of in-flight disturbances that make headlines are Americans. Here, an Irish citizen is at the heart of this matter and that is a distinguishing feature of the story.
CONCLUSION
While what prompted McInerney to act in the way in which he did is not clear, he has got himself into big trouble over his antics. The question is not whether he will fly Delta home to Ireland (he’s now banned), but whether he will be able to fly home at all or instead face jail time in the USA.
image: shanemcinerney_ / Instagram
He wasn’t drunk. An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold on to the floor.
Irish guy, paddy wagon. I see what you’re doing there…. Do keep in mind that some might consider it offensive.
Indeed, but note my preemptive statement on it in my story.
Offensive? Seriously ?
Woke Americans LOL. How the hell is that offensive? It’s what they call themselves. The majority could not give a rats arse. Is Pommy offensive? Thats what we Aussies call the English, usually Pommy bastards and they love it. What about Americans? We call them Seppo’s. So lighten up Seppo.
Preempted or not P-wagon is an offensive word to use.
Shame on you.
I’m getting so tired of the PC police. Give it a rest!
Seriously? You sound like a clown. If that offends you too, may I suggest you quit the internet
I love how all these headlines talk about 20 years in prison. Indeed, that is the maximum penalty for the offense of interfering with a flight crew, but is that the normal sentence handed out? Especially if nobody got killed, injured, and really people were genuinely and certainly annoyed and inconvenienced and may have had genuine fear of what might happen.
Do you have any way of researching though if the 20 year sentence is common, or just a headline grabber?
I imagine many of these end in ple agreements, and maybe you can figure out what the typical agreement is?
I doubt, though, that 20 years in prison is “normally” imposed again unless there was serious injury, death, a particularly noteworthy or otherwise high profile case, etc.
And even if 20 is imposed, what does that mean in terms of when the offender would get out?
I feel as though I’d enjoy hanging out with this guy, certainly more than any of the serious criminals roaming most US cities nowadays that don’t make the news. We used to call this a guy being a jerk. Now it’s a federal offence. How times have changed.
I’m will you. Anyone can be a jerk anywhere on the ground. As we have learned and seen on multiple video clips when fights get serious on a plane it’s not a joke. Im starting to think we need Air Marshals and a small holding cell on planes. Like a drunk tank of sorts or “jerk” tank. Thoughts?
So this guy gets arrested, 20k bond and is looking at a max 20 years in club Fed, while the “F you, Memo!” lady busted a laptop over somebody’s head, also hitting a flight attendant in the process, and she wasn’t even arrested. What explains this? Is it just a JFK vs MIA thing?
At least he’s cute.
20 years seems a bit excessive. Murderers in Norway get 20 years. Perhaps some community service.
The Irish were horribly discriminated against in the USA, not only due to being Irish but Catholic as well.
This is well documented but is rarely discussed or given any place in American history.
Catholics today still face bigotry and hate from many different groups and the mainstream media.
And yet the flight didn’t have to turn around and everyone else wasn’t further inconvenienced. Maybe AA and UA should learn from delta…
It’s too bad this happened on the way to the USA instead of Ireland. The ‘Lad’ clearly has a mental health issue, but since he’s in America, it will simply be ignored.
It is incredible that the international airlines, flying the North Atlantic route, refuse to have security guards onboard the flights. In reality, they don’t want any security guards, since they don’t want to lose the revenue from a paying passenger. However, this specific situation cannot be taken too lightly. First of all, the Captain should never have left the flight deck, to try to reason with that miscreant. The disruptive passenger could have become violent, and could have assaulted and disabled the Captain. There are airlines who have security guards, including one in particular, which would have tackled that fool, and tied him up for the duration of the flight. Only weeks after 9/11/01, on an American Airlines flight from London to Miami, the Shoe Bomber (Richard Reeves), was tackled and tied up by the passengers. There were also no security guards on that flight. It took 8-10 passengers to restrain that psycho. The airlines are always complaining about disruptive passengers, but refuse to do anything about them. The passengers and the flight crew are not expected to be pugilists, or trained in defensive techniques.
“some debate as to wear the term “paddywagon” originated”
I think you mean *where* the term originated
Yummy is he an “exotic dancer”?
What I’m wondering about is the question of jurisdiction. The flight started in Dublin and landed in New York. Most of this occurred in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So why would the U.S. have jurisdiction as opposed to Ireland (other than the fact that the U.S. thinks it has jurisdiction literally everywhere)?