§2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021
In fiscal year 2021, 13 of the 25 people sentenced under guideline §2A5.2 (52%) went to prison, and the median prison term was 8 months. Of the 25 people, 24 (96%) pleaded guilty, and 29% of those pleas had no written plea agreement. No sentence was above the guideline range.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attend › §2A5.2: FY2021
In brief: In fiscal year 2021, 13 of the 25 people sentenced under guideline §2A5.2 (52%) went to prison, and the median prison term was 8 months. Of the 25 people, 24 (96%) pleaded guilty, and 29% of those pleas had no written plea agreement. No sentence was above the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 25 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021. 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.
Straight Pleas Were 29% of Guilty Pleas
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 25 people sentenced in fiscal year 2021 whose primary guideline was §2A5.2. A guilty plea was entered by 24 of them (96%), and 1 person was convicted after a trial.
Among the guilty pleas, 71% had a written plea agreement. The other 29% were straight pleas, which means the person pleaded guilty with no agreement. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 25 people (0%).
Who Was Sentenced to Prison
Prison went to 13 of the 25 people (52%), and 7 (28%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term was 8 months.
A quarter of those sent to prison received 18 months or more, and a quarter received 4.7 months or less. For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2A5.2, 65% were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 8 months, the same as in fiscal year 2021.
No Sentences Above the Range
The guideline range is the sentencing range the court calculates for a case. Within it were 17 of the 25 sentences (68%). Below the range without a government request were 6 (24%), and 2 (8%) were below it at the government's request.
None of the sentences (0%) was above the range. For all fiscal years under this guideline, 59% of sentences were within the range, and for everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021, under every guideline, it was 43%.
Supervised Release, Restitution, and Fines
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 13 people (52%), with a median term of 36 months. Restitution was ordered for 6 people (24%), and a fine for 2 (8%).
In criminal history, 56% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 8% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
How the Guideline Is Named and Counted
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual lists §2A5.2 under the title "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 25 cases is Other.
Fiscal year 2021 ran from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The files include only people who were convicted and sentenced, and prison terms are the terms imposed.
Years on Either Side of Fiscal Year 2021
In fiscal year 2020, 16 people were sentenced under §2A5.2, the median prison term was 10 months, and 69% of sentences were within the range. In fiscal year 2022, 27 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 10 months, and 52% were within the range.
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021, under every guideline, totaled 57,287 people, with a median prison term of 29 months and 98% guilty pleas. The table gives each fiscal year in the period.
| 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% |
What Cannot Be Learned Here
Acquittals and dismissed cases are not in the data, and the records give no facts about any case. With 25 people in one year, the figures are not a trend.
The approved crosswalk lists no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so the numbers stand alone as federal results.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A5.2 (25), 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 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A5.2 Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022 (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.