Maui man arrested over in-flight behavior

The FBI in Los Angeles arrested a 20-year-old Maui man on Monday for interfering with a flight crew on a British Airways flight from London to Los Angeles Airport.

Kevin Lee Mosele of Kihei was charged with one count of interference with a flight crew, a felony that carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison upon conviction. Mosele made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday afternoon.

He was freed on a $10,000 bond and ordered to appear for arraignment on Aug. 4.

An affidavit supporting the complaint alleged Mosele was disruptive and abusive to passengers and the flight crew and had to be physically restrained during the flight.

The complaint charged Mosele made a variety of threats, including a claim that he had a bomb on board, while restrained and that his actions required the captain of the aircraft to personally respond to assess Mosele’s actions throughout the flight.

Several flight attendants restrained him, including placing handcuffs on him, after he threatened to open a door of the airplane.

According to a flight attendant’s interview in the affidavit, 10 minutes after the flight got underway, Mosele’s eyes were bloodshot and “he seemed to be intoxicated.” Flight attendants attempted to calm down Mosele for about 40 minutes before physically restraining him for the remainder of the flight.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Los Angeles.

Mosele received his GED from the state-operated McKinley Community School for Adults on Maui and his photograph was taken next to teachers on the school’s Facebook page.

Mosele’s flight started in Italy, went to London en route to Los Angeles and was eventually to end on Maui, according to the FBI.

In an interview with FBI agents, Mosele admitted he consumed a couple of beers,

a couple of wine beverages and also a small bottle of wine at London’s Heathrow Airport before the flight because he didn’t know if he’d be served alcohol on the flight due to his age.

Honolulu FBI spokesman Tom Simon said the FBI sees a lot of cases in Honolulu of people disrupting flight crews.

“This was unusual that the defendant was actually a local man returning home to Maui,” Simon said.

Simon said in the post-9/11 era, threatening to bomb an aircraft, murder the flight crew, or open the door mid-flight “is something that we don’t take lightly,” adding, “The alleged threats of violence detailed in the criminal complaint were oddly specific. The defendant allegedly yelled at a member of the flight crew that he was going to find the crew member on Facebook and kill him. That had to be a chilling thing to hear at work.”

Simon said for many passengers, alcohol doesn’t do the job of calming them down for a long flight.