Drunk, disruptive passenger fined $53K and sentenced to 5 months' confinement

A drunk and disruptive passenger who groped three women earlier this year on a London-bound US Airways flight from Philadelphia was sentenced Tuesday to five months' confinement in a community home.

Robert Coppack, 41, of La Verne, Calif., was also ordered to pay $53,354 in restitution because his unruly behavior on the May flight forced the airplane to return to Philadelphia.

Prosecutors said Coppack was swigging liquid he described as alcohol from a Gatorade bottle, when he began touching an 18-year-old woman seated next to him and poking another woman seated across the aisle in her arm. When federal air marshals were called to restrain him, he pointed his fingers at them, cursed and threatened to hit them.

In addition to Coppack's sentence, U.S. District Judge Juan R. Padova prohibited him from drinking or taking illegal drugs while under court supervision. - Jeremy Roebuck