When Hilton wakes up about an hour later, he approaches yet another flight attendant and says he’s “going to fucking kill” him three times. He grabs the man’s shirt and name badge saying, “I could get you all fired in five minutes. I know your boss!” He says, “My father will pay this out, he has done it before. Dad paid $300,000 last time.”
P.M.: What a waste of money.
At one point, Hilton says to the co-pilot, who’d come out from the flight deck in the hopes that his authority would subdue Hilton, “If you wanna square up to me, bro, then bring it on and I will fucking fight you.” Every time Hilton has another altercation with the crew, the captain is alerted via the intercom. Such alerts are continual throughout the flight, and no crewmembers are able to take their full mandated rest breaks. Finally, the co-pilot comes out from the flight deck to present Hilton with a final written warning. Hilton rips it up.
P.M.: God, he’s an asshole. But the British Airways crew was incredibly professional. Someone was always walking behind him, hands to the side, nothing threatening, looking down, not confrontational. And if we asked how things were, they were calm, smiling. It was really impressive. If you hadn’t had the staff doing exactly what they did, it could have got very nasty.
At 2:20 a.m. London time, a second safety briefing is held to discuss restraining Hilton, who is again asleep. Shortly thereafter, crewmembers use a blanket and handcuffs to secure Hilton, who wakes up screaming. Among other things, he says he is a model and the crew is “going to ruin my career.”
P.M.: A buzz went around the plane that he had been restrained and we were all, “Fantastic. Good. Happy about that.”
At about 3:35 a.m. London time [7:35 p.m. Los Angeles time], Flight 269 lands. Police come aboard and escort the handcuffed Hilton to the terminal.
P.M.: I remember coming off and seeing him sitting on a bench with what I assume was some kind of federal agent. You would have thought butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, he was so cool. He looked all innocent, like, “I don’t know what the fuss is all about.” He just turned it on, like:Okay, I’m on American soil, and I know how to play this game. He looked like he was having the first day at a new job and wanted to make a good impression.
FBI agent David Gates presents Hilton with an FD-395 Advice of Rights form, which Gates reads to him as he reads along. Hilton says he understands, signing his name and waiving his rights. Then, he agrees to an interview in which he says, among other things, that he had not drunk any alcoholic beverages on the plane or before boarding, but he did take a sleeping pill. He brags that he has “buried” the flight attendants and admits to having called people “peasants.” He also says there was a man at the back of the plane who calmed him down. “If that man wasn’t there,” he says, “that guy [the flight attendant] would have been fucking killed on that flight. A hundred percent I would have killed him.” When the FBI agent asks whether Hilton is serious, he replies, “No, but I would have knocked him the fuck out. A hundred percent.” When the agent reads part of the law regarding interference with flight attendants, Hilton interrupts him. “I did intimidate. But, through defense. He came up to me with his nose.”
P.M.: I spoke to one of the crew when I got off the plane. I said, “I bet you want a hot bath, don’t you, after this?” And she said, “Oh, yeah, and a bottle of wine.” Or maybe I said wine and she said bath. She was British, remember. You could just tell that they were all just really glad that the little bugger had got off the plane and they had survived.
Hilton’s lawyer, Robert Shapiro, tells TMZ.com that the sleeping pill Hilton says he took before the flight may have caused his behavior. TMZ also reports that immediately after the incident, Hilton voluntarily checked into a 30-day in-patient drug and alcohol treatment program. On February 2, Hilton is charged with intimidating or assaulting the flight crew to the point where he interfered with their ability to perform their duties–an offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He is released on $100,000 bail.
P.M.: If you were on a desert island, Hilton would be the weakest link, wouldn’t he? Let’s face it. He’d be the one about whom everyone would say, “Oh, shit, don’t get him to do anything. He’ll balls it up.” But this could be the making of him. Have you ever seen a movie called Captains Courageous with Spencer Tracy? I can’t watch it without bursting into tears. Tracy is this old Portuguese fisherman, and this rich kid falls off the back of an ocean liner and Tracy picks him up. And the spoiled kid does a Conrad Hilton. He says, like, “Do you know who I am??” And Tracy just takes him on and teaches him to be a good person. It’s so touching. You see the transition. It’s beautiful.
