Hockey player in prison for air rage incident

David Cornacchia, a Canadian-born minor league hockey player-currently enlisted with the Florida Everblades–has landed in prison and may have to stay there for a year, after having been convicted on an air rage charge. Cornacchia was convicted of having slapped an American Airlines flight attendant, “exposing himself” on the airplane and physically abusing another passenger, using a head-butt, according to a report in the Globe and Mail newspaper. Cornacchia’s lawyer told journalists that the hockey player has received a one year sentence and will serve this at a US prison. Once Cornacchia is finally released, however, his movements will still be supervised by local authorities and he will have to attend both anger management and substance abuse courses. The troublesome passenger was also fined $4,000 for the incident.

The hockey player’s lawyer noted that his client pleaded guilty to one of the charges-involving interfering with a flight attendant-and told journalists that he had assumed that Cornacchia might have been handed a suspended sentence, involving a period of probation. The sentencing took place in Florida.

Cornacchia’s highly disruptive behaviour on the American Airlines flight from Toronto-Pearson to Dallas prompted the plane’s pilot to actually declare a state of emergency on board. The problem arose when Cornacchia had apparently combined several alcoholic beverages with a sedative. When flight attendants refused to serve him any more drinks, Cornacchia reportedly began to display aggressive behaviour patterns.

www.aa.com