Ohio man who assaulted Frontier flight attendants gets 60-days of jail

Unruly Frontier passenger, 22, who groped two female flight attendants and punched male worker in the face before being duct taped to his seat is sentenced to 60 days in prison

• Maxwell Berry, 22, was handed the prison sentence after being charged with three counts of battery for the incident on July 31, 2021
• The altercation occurred on a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Miami
• He reportedly groped two flight attendants and punched a third after bragging his parents were worth $2million in an alleged drunken stupor
• Three months prior, he graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was praised for being a good role model and for ‘dismantling frat boy stereotypes’
• The crew was originally suspended but the Frontier Airlines reinstated them and placed them on paid leave during the investigation, which is protocol
• Berry’s lawyer Jason Kreiss said the incident was ‘truly an aberration’ in his client’s life 

An Ohio man who was restrained in his seat with tape after groping and assaulting two flight attendants during a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Miami last year has been sentenced by a federal judge to 60 days in prison.

Maxwell Berry, 23, also was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola Jr to a year of supervised release after his jail time, a record of Tuesday’s sentencing hearing in a federal court in Miami showed. Berry was ordered to report to prison by August 1, which would be one year after he was taken into custody at Miami International Airport following the incident.

Berry, of Norwalk, Ohio, had pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and faced up to 18 months in prison. The incident was captured in cellphone videos that went viral, bringing attention to the risks faced by flight attendants due to a growing number of unruly passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Berry had been drinking alcohol and went to the airplane’s bathroom after spilling a drink on himself. He came out of the bathroom without his shirt on and a flight attendant helped him get a clean one out of his bag, according to a police report detailed by WPLG, a local ABC TV affiliate in Miami.

‘Shut the f*** up,’ he yelled at one of the flight attendant in footage of the incident caught on tape, adding that his ‘parents are worth more than f***ing 2 million god d*** dollars.’ 

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Maxwell Berry, 22, was arrested on three counts of battery on July 31, 2021, and is now being sentenced to 60 days in jail after groping two female flight attendants and punching a male worker in the face before being duct taped to his seat

The meltdown from July 31, 2021, began when the 22-year-old Ohio native (pictured) who already had several drinks on the flight, ordered an additional drink

Berry was seen scuffling with a Frontier flight attendant after groping the two women and heading back to his seat

Video showed Maxwell Berry repeatedly shouting ‘help me, help’ while wriggling free from the duct tape around his mouth as the plane came into landing

After walking throughout the cabin for several minutes, Berry groped the breasts of two flight attendants and then punched a male attendant in the face, according to the police report. Passengers helped restrain Berry, who was bound into his seat with tape for the remainder of the flight.

In an emailed statement, Berry’s lawyer Jason Kreiss said the incident was ‘truly an aberration’ in his client’s life.

‘He’s a really good kid from a great family, who was punished for his worst day,’ Kreiss added. ‘Although we don’t believe 60 days was necessary based on Max’s significant self-reform and other mitigating factors, we respect the judgment of the court.’

Following the altercation, Berry was charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery in Miami-Dade County. The FBI was involved but said they weren’t going to pursue felony federal charges at the time.

It’s also unclear if his parents are worth the money he claims they are or what their occupations are. They live in a smart two-story home in Norwalk, Ohio, worth around $220,000, according to publicly-available records.

It’s unknown what his parents do for a living or if his claim that his parents are worth $2million, but a website called ohioresidentdatabse.com lists his mom as having a $100,537 salary and net worth of $1.24million and his dad as having a $59,663 salary and net worth of $924,250.  

Berry graduated from Ohio State University in May 2021, just three months before his arrest. At the end of his last academic year, he was given a good role model award for ‘dismantling frat boy stereotypes’ and ‘standing up and showing what a fraternity really means.’ 

It’s unclear what his parents do or if they are worth $2million, but they live in a $220,000 Ohio home, according to records

This is the moment Max Berry won a good role model award – which saw him lauded for dismantling boorish frat-boy stereotypes – months before his now-infamous plane meltdown

However, flight attendants union president Sara Nelson released a scathing statement in August claiming Berry was ‘one of the worst examples’ of unruly passengers they’ve faced. 

‘A drunk and irate passenger verbally, physically and sexually assaulted multiple members of the crew. When he refused to comply after multiple attempts to de-escalate, the crew was forced to restrain the passenger with the tools available to them onboard. We are supporting the crew,’ Nelson said. 

The crew was originally suspended in ‘a knee-jerk reaction to a short video clip that did not show the full incident,’ Nelson said. 

Since then, the airline told DailyMail.com that it has reinstated the crew and placed them on paid leave during the investigation, which it said is protocol. 

‘Frontier Airlines maintains the utmost value, respect, concern and support for all of our flight attendants, including those who were assaulted on this flight. We are supporting the needs of these team members and are working with law enforcement to fully support the prosecution of the passenger involved,’ the airline said in an emailed statement to DailyMail.com.

Frontier restated the accusations, saying ‘the passenger made inappropriate physical contact with two flight attendants and subsequently physically assaulted another flight attendant.’

‘As a result, the passenger needed to be restrained until the flight landed in Miami and law enforcement arrived,’ Frontier Airlines said.  

Nelson then took to Twitter to amend her statement on the altercation, saying Frontier is ‘doing the right thing’ by not suspending the crew. 

‘Thanks to so many people for supporting the work of Flight Attendants and the incredibly difficult jobs crews are charged with doing right now,’ she tweeted back in August

Drunk Frontier passenger Maxwell Berry (pictured) allegedly screamed his parents were worth $2million then groped two flight attendants and punched a third before the crew duct taped him to a chair 

Alfredo Rivera, who was sitting in a seat behind Berry captured the 22-year-old being unruly and scuffling with a flight attendant trying to subdue him

Violent incidencies like the one Berry started are becoming more frequent on airplanes and at airports as air travel picks up a year on from the pandemic. 

In 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that airlines have reported a total of 5,981 incidents involving unruly passengers, with 4,290 of them  involving passengers who refused to wear masks on board their flights.

The agency has proposed $5,000,000 in fines against trouble-making passengers.

So far in 2022, there have been 1,3111 reports of undisciplined passengers, with 1,900 of them per 10,000 flights for the week ending on April 24, according to the FAA’s website. 

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