The Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Poughkeepsie man who forced a United Airlines flight to return to Dulles Airport last year after shouting “jihad” and rushing the cockpit has been sentenced to nine months in prison.

Thirty-six-year-old David Patrick Diaz pleaded guilty to interfering with a flight crew earlier this year. His defense lawyer said Diaz has problems with mental illness and alcohol. It was unclear if he is from the city or town of Poughkeepsie.

On a March 2015 flight from Washington to Denver, Diaz was tackled by passengers after shouting “jihad” and saying there was something in the belly of the plane.

Donna Tellam, a computer processing executive who was returning from London, said she was seated in the second row of first class when a man came running from the back of the plane about 15 minutes into the flight. He was yelling profanities and said the plane was going down and it was flying too slowly, she reported.

Tellam said two men behind her jumped up and grabbed Diaz, and put him on the ground in the aisle next to her seat, where he remained until the plane circled back.

“They laid on him and he just kept shouting incoherent things like ‘I can make you and your family rich,’ ‘I live next to Apple,’ ‘I live next to Boeing,’ ‘Let me go and let me live and I’ll make our families rich,’ ” she said.

Tellam said the two men who grabbed Diaz acted so quickly and thoroughly — removing his shoes and checking for weapons — that she thought at first they were air marshals.

“It went from a state of the most fear I’d ever had in my life to calm. They had it under control so I was grateful to them for sure,” she said.

The pilot reported the incident as a “Level 2” disturbance, the second lowest level of severity on a four-level scale. A Level 2 disturbance indicates physically abusive behavior but no life-threatening behavior.

Prosecutors sought a sentence of 21 months, but a judge at federal court in Alexandria imposed only a nine-month sentence at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.

Diaz was also ordered to pay $22,000 in restitution to United.