Former NFL player urinates on 78-year-old woman on Delta Air Lines flight; Aircraft diverted

Here’s something you don’t see or read about every day and let’s hope it stays that way. According to USA Today and Massachusetts State Police, Delta Air Lines Flight 154 was heading to Dublin from Boston early Sunday when it was diverted and forced to return to Logan International Airport “because of an unruly passenger who urinated on another passenger on board.”

Turns out, that unruly passenger was 6-foot-6, 280-pound Gosder Cherilus, 40, of Wakefield, Massachusetts and former Detroit Lions offensive tackle. According to court documents and NBC News, “Cherilus was allegedly drunk and unhappy with his assignment in seat 3D.” When the plane was 36,000 feet above Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cherilus approached a 78-year-old woman in seat 4C when he fully exposed himself and “began urinating on an elderly female, emptying his entire bladder for approximately 20 seconds.”

NBC continues to say, that due to Cherilus’ “egregious behavior,” the “entire flight experienced extreme shock, alarm and were in fear for their safety.”

Cherilus took to Instagram to give his side of the story. He wrote, “I’d like to address the media reports about me that surfaced today regarding a situation that occurred onboard a flight to Ireland this past weekend. The flight was unexpectedly delayed for approximately four hours, and it did not take off until after 12:30AM. In preparation for the unexpected overnight flight, I took a sleeping medication that I don’t normally use, which resulted in behavior that is not representative of my character, and I would like to apologize to the passengers and flight crew.”

FlightAware does show DL154 was three hours and thirty seven minutes late in taking off but there’s obviously no excuse for this outrageous behavior. Cherilus was in court today and according to CBS News, he “pleaded not guilty to interfering with the operation of an aircraft, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest at his arraignment Monday in East Boston District Court. He was released on $2,500 bail.”

Below is a video of Cherilus and his lawyer leaving court this morning:

Former NFL lineman Gosder Cherilus leaving East Boston District Court today after allegedly urinating on another passenger during a Delta Airlines flight to Dublin. He is out on a $2,500 bail. @wbz @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/rhnjD7dWtT

— Penny Kmitt (@pennylikeacoin) August 19, 2024

I suspect Cherilus is a nice guy but he made a huge mistake taking medication he normally doesn’t take and drinking alcohol on top of it. One of my travel tips, which I’ve written and spoken about frequently, is to never take medication, especially sleeping pills, for the first time on a plane because you don’t know how it will affect you. I’ve known friends who have taken them at home and had crazy side effects, including sleeping walking into the pool. If you want to sleep on a long flight, here are my tips.

Sadly, this is not the first time a passenger has been urinated on during a flight. It’s actually happened many times. Last year, in the span of a month, an incident similar to this happened on American Airlines’ nonstop between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL). Here’s the story but the short version is they were drunk.

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