Vegas man arrested after mid-air brawl

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- A 19-year-old Las Vegas man was being held in a Canadian jail after he allegedly harassed British airline passengers in a beer-splashing brawl, forcing the London-bound plane to make an emergency landing.

Francois Scott Vizard, an American whose father is a prominent child psychologist in France, allegedly got into a rowdy altercation with other passengers while on the flight from Las Vegas, dumping beer on a man and insulting his dentistry.

The flight was forced to land in Winnipeg on Tuesday, where Vizard was arrested, police said.

Vizard acknowledged he accidentally spilled a beer on a British man sitting behind him when he moved his seat back, but said that man retaliated by dumping a beer on Vizard's head. The flight crew and passengers ganged up on him because he is American, he said.

He acknowledged calling the passenger names.

"I was making fun of the guy's teeth because they were all crooked. Then I insulted his nose, then I insulted his face," he said.

"The next thing I know, I can feel the plane starting to go down and I said to the guy, 'Look at what's being done because of you.'"

Vizard was charged with mischief, uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm and failing to comply with instructions under the Air Navigation Order. He was expected to seek bail Friday after spending the past three nights at a downtown Winnipeg jail.