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Intoxicated British passenger forces emergency landing at OIA

ORLANDO, Fla. — An angry passenger who was hauled off an international flight at Orlando International Airport is trying to remember exactly how he ended up in the Orange County Jail.

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing Sunday night after Sean Kelly started spitting on flight attendants and tried to fight fellow passengers, authorities said.

On Monday, Kelly sat down with Channel 9 and said he only remembers getting on the plane in Mexico and then waking up in a squad car in Orlando.

Kelly said he was headed home on British Airways from Cancun, Mexico, on a direct flight that was supposed to take him to London Gatwick.

Kelly said he was drinking vodka and took some pills, but that's it.

"I had about a quarter bottle of vodka, to be perfectly honest, and I don't remember a thing after that," Kelly said.

Kelly said he takes medication for fear of flying, but the medication was stolen in Cancun. He said a Canadian couple offered him a sleeping pill, so he washed it down with a couple of beers and vodka from a duty-free shop.

"It must have reacted with the pill," said Kelly. "I don't know what the pill was, to be perfectly honest."

What Kelly doesn't remember is how he injured his eye and even forced Flight 2202 to make a sudden landing in Orlando.

Authorities said that somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico, Kelly became so aggressive that the flight crew decided to land in Orlando and get him off the plane.

"The next thing I can remember is being in the back of a police car," said Kelly.

Authorities said Kelly became aggressive and increasingly violent after being removed from the plane, using profanity and wrestling with police before being taken to the ground twice as he struggled with two officers.

On Monday, he went before a judge and faced charges of aggravated assault and resisting an officer, charges he said he can't believe are actually his.

"I've been here once before, but it was a lot more civilized. Disney World as opposed to prison world," he said.

Officials said he will most likely end up with a fine and probation.