Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against a Washington public relations executive accused of violating the USA Patriot Act by drunkenly disregarding the orders of a flight attendant.
In October, David H. Bass was charged in federal court under a Patriot Act provision that defines interfering with a flight member as a terrorist act and felony.
Court documents alleged that Bass, a television commentator who recently started Raptors Strategies public relations firms, was flying from Houston to Washington when he drunkenly demanded wine while standing in the aisle. Authorities said he refused to follow flight attendants’ directions that he sit down.
The criminal charges have now been dropped “due to, among other reasons, the availability of civil administrative remedies before the Federal Aviation Administration,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. Court records indicate that Bass has not been sued by the FAA.
— Freeman Klopott
