Unruly Airline Passenger Convicted

An Iranian immigrant was convicted Thursday of interfering with the crew of a passenger plane bound from Los Angeles to Toronto Sept. 27 by allegedly threatening to “kill all Americans.”

Javid Naghani, a 37-year-old Woodland Hills businessman, faces up to 10 years in prison for his conviction by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles. He is to be sentenced March 4.

“Especially after Sept 11, federal law enforcement takes very seriously any threats or disruptive conduct that may endanger the safety of aircraft, crew or passengers,” U.S. Atty. John S. Gordon said after the verdict was rendered. “We have been and will continue to be extremely aggressive in prosecuting these cases regardless of whether any injury occurs.”

Naghani, who has been held without bail since his arrest, showed no emotion when the verdict was announced.

Prosecutors charged that he made the threat during a confrontation with flight attendants who caught him smoking in a lavatory about half an hour into the flight.

The Air Canada pilot turned the Boeing 767 around and returned to Los Angeles International Airport, where Naghani was arrested by a team of SWAT officers.

Naghani, who has lived in the United States since 1979 and operates a janitorial service, took the stand in his own defense in the three-day trial and denied making any such threats.

“I swear to God, I never say that and I never will,” he told the jury, speaking in broken and heavily accented English.

The episode occurred just 16 days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Naghani’s lawyer argued that the flight crew overreacted because of the Sept. 11 events.

“They were scared because Mr. Naghani was Middle Eastern,” said attorney Theodore Flier. “I don’t like racism of any kind, and that’s what this case is about.”

Two flight attendants involved in the confrontation denied that Naghani was singled out because of his ethnic background.

They testified that he set off a smoke alarm when he lit a cigarette in a lavatory at the rear of the plane.

Emerging from the smoke-filled restroom, they said, Naghani initially insisted that he hadn’t been smoking and refused to tell them where he had discarded his cigarette.

The crew members said they feared that a smoldering butt could start a devastating fire aboard the plane.

When told that he could be arrested for smoking in the lavatory, the attendants said, Naghani became hostile and threatened to “kill Americans.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Elizabeth Yang said Naghani “went crazy” after being reprimanded for smoking.

“He wanted to be able to break the rules because he felt they shouldn’t apply to him,” she told the jury.

Naghani denied acting belligerently. He said he apologized profusely for violating the smoking ban.

He said he begged the crew not to have him arrested, explaining that he needed to be available to pay employees of his janitorial service, Cleaning of America, in Canoga Park.

His lawyer suggested that, given Naghani’s heavy accent, the flight attendants might have mistaken “Cleaning of America” for “killing Americans.”

The defense also disputed a police officer’s testimony that Naghani shouted obscenities about President Bush and America in a holding cell at LAX.