Man arrested here after
allegedly disrupting flight

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Star-Bulletin staff

A Sri Lankan citizen accused of assaulting a flight attendant was arrested Saturday after the Philippine Airlines flight from Los Angeles he was on stopped in Honolulu.

Porastus Chanda Sri Dissanayake, 26, was charged in U.S. District Court yesterday with assaulting a member of the flight crew and interfering with the crew's duties.

The plane was 45 minutes into the flight when Dissanayake was allegedly seen throwing foam-tipped headsets at a flight attendant who had just handed him one, cursing and demanding another. Another flight attendant, Sebash Aidasani, warned the passenger to calm down, according to officials. Dissanayake responded saying, "Be careful, I'm a rebel in my country," according to an court affidavit.

About 15 minutes later, Dissanayake walked to the front galley and demanded headphones from another flight attendant, officials said.

After being told to sit down again and warned he was committing a federal offense, Dissanayake allegedly struck Aidasani in the back with a closed fist, in the lower jaw and in the upper eye area. Other passengers helped wrestle Dissanayake to the cabin floor.