British air traveler leaves for homeland Bangor arrest results in jail time, fine

BANGOR – The last of three British airline passengers who prompted two separate international flight diversions to Bangor International Airport last week was returning home Thursday night.

Freed from the Penobscot County Jail at 3 p.m. Thursday after serving three days in jail for failure to submit to arrest and two drug charges, 34-year-old Kevin Sibley was brought to BIA under the watchful eyes of Bangor police and prepared for a 5:40 p.m. flight to Boston.

State police in Massachusetts had been alerted to his arrival and were expected to keep an eye on him until he could be presented to federal immigration officials. Bangor police Officer Dan Scripture said two security guards hired by an airline were to accompany Sibley back to England aboard the British Airways flight, expected to leave Boston about 9 p.m.

Last Friday a Britannia Airways flight from London to Cancun, Mexico, was diverted to Bangor after Sibley allegedly assaulted his girlfriend. Police later found hashish and the drug Ecstasy in his possession.

Just hours after Sibley’s plane landed, a disturbance on a British Airways flight to Mexico City caused that plane to be diverted to BIA and Bangor police arrested two Britons, John Ward, 55, and Robert Doherty, 38.

No federal charges were filed against the three men, and Ward and Doherty were released on cash bail and ordered home. Doherty called the Bangor Daily News on Monday from Boston and expressed some confusion as to what had happened days earlier, as he waited for his flight home.

“We did nothing wrong up there,” he said. “We [were] not drunk. It was a little trouble blown out of proportion.”

Sibley’s flight was held overnight in Bangor because of mechanical problems. Hotels and motels in the area – already full from a full weekend of activities and events – had difficulty placing some passengers.

Sibley did not leave Bangor with the rest of the passengers, however. Released on Friday night and ordered to stay sober, Sibley was arrested over the weekend after it was reported he had gotten drunk and assaulted his girlfriend again. Police charged him with violating his bail and he remained in jail until Monday, when he pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to three days in jail and an $800 fine.

The two incidents garnered international attention and Bangor police Sgt. D. Ward Gagner fielded dozens of phone calls, many from the British media, about the back-to-back diversions.