Arlington man pleads not guilty to tampering with plane door

“I asked him why he did it, and he just said it was a dumb move to do, that he had been drinking at the airport for a few hours and he does a lot of dumb things,’’ said John Riley, one of two men asked by Delta Air Lines flight attendants to sit next to Hersey after the incident.

Riley, a 13-year veteran of the Weymouth Police Department, said he was asked to volunteer to monitor Hersey for the remainder of the flight even before the attendants knew that he was a police officer.

Witnesses said there was never any commotion aboard the flight, which was carrying 148 passengers and five crew members. But some passengers seated near Hersey, a 43-year-old unemployed plumber from Arlington, became nervous because of the attention directed at him.

As soon as the plane landed, news of what happened aboard Delta Flight 1102 drew widespread media attention.

But Hersey’s attorney, Ron Wayland, said after his client was charged yesterday in East Boston District Court with interfering with the operation of an aircraft, “this should be a non-event.’’ He said that the entire incident was an accident and that Hersey was not trying to put the flight in jeopardy, nor was he drunk. Wayland also said his client did not have to be forcibly restrained, as some reports stated.

“In these days, especially very recently, people on aircraft, as well as the employees, the staff, are very sensitive, and we need to be concerned, but you have to make judgments,’’ Wayland said. “I think if the flight attendants, if it would have been left up to them, they would have said, ‘Hey, this is not a big deal.’ ’’

Wayland entered a not guilty plea on Hersey’s behalf yesterday.

The defendant, still wearing a Bruins T-shirt and cap from the night before, was released after posting $1,000 bail. He is due back in court June 7.

Hersey, who is married, was returning to Boston after visiting his parents in the Orlando area.

In the past decade, there have been at least a dozen similar cases on flights headed to, departing from, or diverted to Logan International Airport, according to records in East Boston District Court, which has jurisdiction over Logan.

In January, a Hudson man was charged with interfering with the operation of a US Airways shuttle flight after refusing to sit down and place his bag in the overhead compartment before takeoff. Authorities treated his bag as a suspicious package.

The defendant testified that he could not sit for prolonged periods because of back problems. The case was closed last month without a conviction.

Most of the cases ended with dismissals, including one in March 2010, in which a 76-year-old woman was accused of assaulting a JetBlue flight attendant who was serving coffee.

The woman became angry because she could not return to her seat immediately, as the cart blocked her access.

The case was dismissed when the defendant wrote an apology to the airline employee.

In the most recent case, the passengers on Delta Flight 1102 were not in any danger, since it would have been impossible for Hersey to remove the door because of the pressurization inside the cabin, said Susan Elliott, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. It was not clear yesterday just what type of locking mechanism was on the emergency door of the Airbus 320.

Elliott said the airline’s policy requires staff to prevent anyone who appears intoxicated from sitting in emergency exit seats.

When the cover, or panel, popped off the door, it triggered a light in the cockpit, indicating that someone was trying to open the exit door. Captain Craig Basler instructed his crew to remove Hersey from the emergency exit seat and place him in a rear seat where he could be watched, authorities said.

Riley, who was accompanying five children on the flight, including two of his own, after vacationing at Universal Studios in Orlando, sat in the window seat to one side of Hersey. Phil Tighe, from Plympton, sat in the aisle seat on the other side.

Both Riley and Tighe, who did not witness Hersey allegedly tamper with the door, said they were instructed by flight attendants not to leave him, and that if any one needed to go to the bathroom, they were to press the overhead call button.

“Once, we had to escort him to the bathroom,’’ Tighe said in a telephone interview.

“I saw him in the airport lounge before the flight, and he said he had been drinking because the flight was delayed,’’ Tighe said.

Riley did say he smelled alcohol on Hersey’s breath. Hersey did not appear drunk, but it was clear that he had been drinking earlier in the day, the men said. They talked with Hersey about sports, especially the Bruins.

But often, during the flight, Hersey interjected that he “did something stupid,’’ they said.

Brian R. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.