Thrown Off Plane, Jailed in Houston : Newlyweds Admit to Jetliner High Jinks

There had been champagne for the wedding and champagne for dessert and at the Tampa airport bar a couple of cocktails for the road. No wonder the newlyweds were in a celebratory mood when they boarded Flight 1740 for Los Angeles.

And no wonder Mitchell and Cindy Martina of Huntington Beach say they do not remember yelling at the stewardess or trying to stab a fellow passenger with a fork or committing indiscreet amorous acts in the back of the plane.

But the honeymoon came to an abrupt end May 3 when the Continental Airlines flight made an unscheduled stop in Houston and ejected the merrymakers for a 46-hour stay in the Houston jail.

Both Plead Guilty

On Thursday, Cindy Martina, 30, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count of willfully assaulting a passenger. Husband Mitchell, 23, admitted to one count of committing a lewd and indecent act in the presence of children.

He faces a potential punishment of $100,000 in fines and a year in jail, she a maximum of $300 and three months for a flight they say now they wish they had never taken.

“We were drunk when we got on, to the point where they almost wouldn’t let us fly, and God knows, I wish they wouldn’t have,” Cindy Martina, an Orange County postal worker, said in an interview Thursday.

The couple had been living together for nearly three years and had decided on the spur of the moment to wed while visiting friends and family near Tampa, she said.

The wedding was held in the afternoon by the pool, but the festivities continued all the way to the airport. What happened after that is anybody’s guess, the couple told U.S. Magistrate John R. Kronenberg. They were too drunk to remember much.

But the FBI remembers.

In an affidavit filed with the court, Special Agent Albert Mujica said the jetliner’s captain had to be called back to try to quiet the couple.

Jabs Passenger With Fork

“Come on and hit me,” Mitchell Martina suggested to the captain, while Cindy was jabbing at a fellow passenger with a metal fork, cursing and threatening, “You . . . are going to get it!”

Sometime during the flight, with a 9-year-old seated nearby, the couple turned their attention to each other, Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen G. Wolfe told the court.

Martina opened his wife’s blouse and kissed her bosom, the federal prosecutor said, reading carefully from his file.

Mitchell Martina denies that part, but does recall that there may have been some trouble over an order for beer. “I was mad at her for causing such a scene over the beer,” he said. “I was far from that mood, like, ‘Hey, baby, we’re married, kiss me.’ ”

In any event, the Martinas and their best man, who had accompanied them, were summarily ejected from the flight in Houston. The best man pleaded guilty to public intoxication.

The Martinas said they entered guilty pleas in Los Angeles to avoid the expense of a full criminal trial in Houston.

They also face possible civil action and fines of an estimated $1,000 each from the Federal Aviation Administration for calling the captain away from his duties, Cindy Martina said.

“If we had the money, we’d be fighting it, and we’d win it,” she said. “But we’re already out gobs of money. They treated us like we hijacked the plane or something.”

“What the airline should be looking at is the fact that they knew they were pretty drunk when they got on the plane,” said their attorney, Raul Ayala. “They let ‘em on. They were asking for trouble.”