§2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
Prison terms under guideline §2A5.2 in fiscal year 2019 varied widely. The median was 7 months, but a quarter of the 16 people sent to prison received 21 months or more, and a quarter received 2.6 months or less. The Commission counted 27 people, and 26 (96%) pleaded guilty.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attend › §2A5.2: FY2019
In brief: Prison terms under guideline §2A5.2 in fiscal year 2019 varied widely. The median was 7 months, but a quarter of the 16 people sent to prison received 21 months or more, and a quarter received 2.6 months or less. The Commission counted 27 people, and 26 (96%) pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 27 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
A Wide Range of Prison Terms
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 27 people sentenced in fiscal year 2019 whose primary guideline was §2A5.2. Prison went to 16 of them (59%), and 10 (37%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term among those sent to prison was 7 months. A quarter received 21 months or more, and a quarter received 2.6 months or less. Prison terms here are the terms imposed, not time served.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 65% of people were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 8 months.
Position Against the Guideline Range
Within the guideline range were 16 of the 27 sentences (59%). That matches the 59% for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2A5.2.
Below the range without a government request were 7 sentences (26%), and 2 (7%) were below the range at the government's request. Above the range were 2 sentences (7%).
For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019, under every guideline, 51% of sentences were within the range.
Pleas and Mandatory Minimums
A guilty plea was entered by 26 of the 27 people (96%). One person was convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 81% had a written plea agreement, and 19% were straight pleas with no agreement.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 27 people (0%). The Commission's files include only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are not in them.
Supervised Release, Restitution, and Fines
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 15 people (56%), with a median term of 36 months. Restitution was ordered for 7 people (26%), and a fine for 5 (19%).
In criminal history, 63% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 11% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so this measure exists only on the federal side.
Guideline Title and Offense Type
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2A5.2 "Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant; Interference with Dispatch, Navigation, Operation, or Maintenance of Mass Transportation Vehicle; Unsafe Operation of Unmanned Aircraft." The Commission's offense type for the 27 cases is Other.
The federal fiscal year here began on October 1, 2018 and ended on September 30, 2019. The Commission assigns a case to one primary guideline, the one that drove the offense level of the most serious count.
Fiscal Year 2019 and the Years Around It
In fiscal year 2018, 18 people were sentenced under §2A5.2, the median prison term was 6.1 months, and 72% of sentences were within the range. In fiscal year 2020, 16 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 10 months, and 69% were within the range.
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019, under every guideline, totaled 76,538 people. Their median prison term was 21 months, and 98% pleaded guilty. The yearly table is below.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 32 | 9 months | 91% |
| 2017 | 20 | 6.5 months | 85% |
| 2018 | 18 | 6.1 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 27 | 7 months | 96% |
| 2020 | 16 | 10 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 25 | 8 months | 96% |
| 2022 | 27 | 10 months | 96% |
| 2023 | 20 | 6 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 30 | 10.5 months | 93% |
| 2025 | 29 | 8.4 months | 100% |
Limits of the Records
The records give no facts about any case and no reasons for the choice of probation or prison. A single year with 27 people is not a trend.
No close court-martial counterpart for this guideline appears in the approved crosswalk. This post therefore reports the federal figures alone.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A5.2 (27), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.