A Nebraska man on business as a consultant in Alaska was sentenced Feb. 3, 202 to time served for assaulting a flight attendant during a Delta Airline flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage on Jan. 29.
Denis McCarville, 70, who is the former CEO of Alaska Child & Family social service agency and who now lives in Omaha, while working as a consultant in Alaska, was a passenger aboard Delta Flight 2236, when he became angry because his tray table was stuck. He also inserted his foot into the aisle of the jet every time a particular flight attendant came by, with the apparent intention of tripping her.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested McCarville when the jet landed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
McCarville pleaded guilty to an Information charging Assault in the Special Aircraft Jurisdiction of the United States, in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 46506 and 18 U.S.C. § 113.
The airline flight attendant who was struck was working on the first beverage cart service of the flight, beginning with the front of the cabin and working to the back of the plane, when she came to row 12 where McCarville was seated in the aisle seat, 12C. When she asked McCarville what he wanted to drink, he stated “I can’t have a drink because my tray table is broken.”
The flight attendant tried to assist in getting the tray out of the arm rest, but she could not get it out either. She apologized to McCarville and pointed out the middle seat was empty, and he could use its tray table instead.
McCarville was still upset, so the flight attendant offered to give him some SkyMiles for the inconvenience, but he responded that his entire flight ticket should be refunded. The attendant said she couldn’t do that but he could ask a Delta representative to refund his ticket once the flight landed in Anchorage.
As the flight attendant turned to the other side of the aisle to serve beverages, McCarville jabbed her so hard that the attendant nearly was knocked into the passenger opposite McCarville. The flight attendant turned to McCarville and said, “That was not okay, please do not touch me again, let’s keep our hands to ourselves,” to which McCarville replied, very loudly, “Fuck you.”
At this point other passengers got involved, including a passenger in 12A, who told McCarville to stop behaving badly.
That didn’t go over well with McCarville, who stated, “I’m a Gold Medallion; I can do whatever I want. Fuck you,” and “Shut the fuck up.”
The flight crew followed protocol with de-escalation by switching positions and job responsibilities. That flight attendant was no longer to work that part of the cabin’s beverage service or interact anymore with McCarville. Another flight attendant took the assaulted attendant to the back of the plane to inspect her rib area where McCarville had jabbed her.
Later on the flight, whenever the attendant walked by McCarville, he stuck his foot into the aisle. Since it was a red-eye flight, and since McCarville didn’t do that to any of the other attendants, it started to look like he was singling her out again.
Toward the end of the flight, McCarville got into a dispute with the passenger in 12A, starting to swear at him several times: “Fuck you.” McCarville would not let the passenger get by to use the bathroom, the court document shows.
The flight attendant said she had served one alcoholic beverage to McCarville, but she didn’t believe he was drunk. However, the flight attendant wore a mask and has a deviated septum, which makes it hard for her to smell anything. She has been a flight attendant for eight years and has never before been pushed or prodded like that, she told the court.
McCarville is a social worker and does clinical work with children. He was CEO of Alaska Child & Family until 2018.
