4 months in a Montana jail is the next stop for Judith McKenith of New Jersey after she attempted to enter a cockpit of a Northwest Airlines flight while intoxicated and hitting a flight attendant. The sentence was handed out in federal court in Billings, Montana. I think this is a solid sentence, long enough that it will send a signal out to the traveling public that you have to behave on an airline.

Judith McKenith, 57, of Bergenfield, N.J., apologized for her actions during her sentencing in federal court in Billings on Thursday, and said she has since entered an alcohol and drug recovery program.”I regret what happened. I was wrong,” she told U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull. “I’m on a different road and I like the road I’m on now.”Prosecutors said McKenith was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 1279 on Jan. 6, 2004, and had been drinking heavily. FBI investigators said McKenith became belligerent when she was denied additional drinks and hit a flight attendant on the chin. Passengers tried to intervene and McKenith hit one in the face and kicked another in the groin. She then said she was going to the cockpit to talk to the captain.McKenith was restrained and the plane, en route from Minneapolis to Boise, Idaho, made an unscheduled landing in Billings. As officers removed McKenith from the plane, she tried to kick and bite the officers and tried to wrap her legs around the railing as they went down the stairs from the plane.

AP Wire | 02/10/2006 | Woman who disrupted flight gets prison time.