Pam Louwagie, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
A Pittsburgh woman was ringing in the New Year in a Minnesota jail after authorities charged her Wednesday with attacking an air marshal on a flight to the Twin Cities late Tuesday.
Dawn L. Sunday, 37, is also charged in federal court with interfering with a flight crew on the Northwest Airlines Flight 1057.
Federal Air Marshal Joseph Loftus wrote in a supporting affidavit that flight attendants moved the woman to an area of open seats in the back of the plane after passengers complained that she was being loud and intimidating. A flight attendant said she was intoxicated, he wrote.
When Loftus took a seat next to her to calm her down, Sunday told him that she was going to kill him, then hit him in the back and tried to choke him, he wrote. He handcuffed her and she soon kicked him, the affidavit said.
On the ground at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Sunday tried to bite a police officer and police had to tackle her at one point, Loftus wrote.
Sunday appeared in court Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Janie Mayeron in St. Paul and was ordered held without bail. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.