Heidi McKinney (above in her mugshot from May 2016) was sentenced on Monday

A 27-year-old woman has been sentenced to eight months home detention for drunkenly groping a fellow female passenger on board an Alaskan Airlines flight.

Heidi McKinney was sentenced in Portland, Oregon, on Monday for the incident which took place in May last year.

She had pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit a felony, which carried a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.

In addition to home detention, McKinney was sentenced to three years on probation.

She was already drunk when she got on the flight from Las Vegas to Portland and sat next to a 19-year-old woman in an empty row.

McKinney tried to force the teenager to drink alcohol she had smuggled on board and touched her breasts several times, leaving her hands to 'linger' on the woman's chest.

She then tried to place her hands on the other woman's genitals, licked her ears and then straddled her, telling her: 'I want to f***'.

When the woman rejected her, McKinney called her 'poor'. They were separated on the plane and she was arrested upon landing.

McKinney's male fiance later told authorities she did not 'metabolize alcohol' and said 'this is what happens when she drinks'.

The 27-year-old (above in a previous photograph) was drunk when she boarded the flight from Las Vegas to Portland, Oregon in May last year

Once the Alaskan Airlines (file image above) plane had took off, McKinney groped the other woman's breasts and genitals, licked her ear and tried to force her to drink alcohol

Prosecutors in Portland told the court the victim had been left permanently traumatized by the attack.

'Miss McKinney did so with the intent to humiliate and harass the victim.

'(She) both made contact with victim’s body, including her inner thigh, and made a series of profane and lewd statements to the victim,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Ravi Sinha said in March.

She was initially charged with abusive sexual contact but pleaded guilty to the lesser crime of assault with intent to commit felony.

Shortly after a court hearing in March, McKinney was found unconscious in a bar.

Previous court records reveal she has a past convictions for drunk driving in 2008 and 2015.