CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A Nebraska man described as an “unruly passenger” was sentenced Tuesday after causing an emergency landing on a flight diverted to Cedar Rapids. KCRG reports 23-year-old Mario Nikprelaj was sentenced to more than a year in prison and a two-year supervised release after causing an emergency landing at the Eastern Iowa Airport on a SkyWest flight from Omaha to Detroit on July 17, 2025.

In October 2025, Nikprelaj pleaded guilty in federal court to interference with flight crew members and attendants. According to a federal complaint, the captain was told about Nikprelaj and flight attendants described him as an “unruly passenger” before take off. Flight attendants told the captain that Nikprelaj was leaving his seat against orders. He flipped off the flight attendants and returned to his seat. He was sat in the plane’s exit row.

According to a criminal complaint, he later tried to open an emergency exit door and fought with other passengers. At one point, he threatened to kill a flight attendant. The flight attendant told him to remain in his seat and he grabbed her arm. The captain called the Eastern Iowa Airport and said he needed to make an emergency landing. The call took place about fifteen miles from the airport. Passengers helped subdue Nikprelaj until the plane landed at the Eastern Iowa Airport, where he was detained.

After landing, officers conducted a search and found a prescription bottle containing 41 suspected Xanax pills that was not issued in his name. In 2020, when Nikprelaj was 18 years old, he was charged after hitting his girlfriend before stealing a snow plow from a business near Detroit, Michigan. Video shows him climbing inside the plow shirtless before realizing the keys are in the ignition. He got about eight miles before he was pulled over and arrested.