Montana man admits assaulting woman on Utah flight

MONTANA — A Bozeman man admitted to assaulting another passenger while on a flight from Salt Lake City.

Hunter Andrew Dietrich, 32, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault onboard an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the District of Montana.

The office said that Dietrich was a passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight on Feb. 11, 2023, from Salt Lake City to Bozeman, Montana. He began to disobey the flight crew’s instructions to behave himself.

“In addition, Dietrich approached a woman passenger during the flight and touched her body in various places despite the woman passenger telling him to stop,” the attorney’s office press release stated.

Dietrich faces a maximum of six months in prison, a $5,000 fine and one year of supervised release. He will be sentenced on July 10.

The initial indictment charged Dietrich with abusive sexual contact in an aircraft, but an amended indictment showed the charge was dropped.