Ronald Cheng lost a lot money due to a flight incident in 2000
30 May - Ronald Cheng recently admitted that it took him a long time to pay the damages caused by his drunken state while flying to Taipei from the United States.
As reported on Mingpao, the singer-actor who appeared on Chapman To's show, "Chapmanology" on Fantastic Television, shared his shameful experience when asked about the time he caused a major issue with his drinking.
More than 17 years ago, Ronald found himself making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The singer, who was living in California at the time, was aboard an EVA Air Flight - first-class - heading from Los Angeles to Taipei in February 2000 when the troubles occurred.
Sources shared that after drinking several glasses of spirits, Ronald started smoking and disturbing other passengers with his singing. However, when a flight attendant asked him to settle down after a complain was made by a passenger, the singer reportedly pulled her to the floor and sparked a fight with other passengers.
He was finally subdued when confronted by the pilot, and spent the whole flight cuffed in his seat. He was later arrested by FBI agents when the plane reached Anchorage, Alaska.
Recalling the event recently, Ronald said that he was so drunk that all he could remember was waking up cuffed to the chair and facing the FBI. Even that, he said, felt almost like a dream.
The singer said that it was only later on that he realised that he had caused much more than just a disturbance in the cabin - that the flight lost a lot of fuel as it had to make an emergency landing in Alaska because of him.
"After the incident, I had to spend a lot of money to pay the compensation for all the damages I made to the airlines and people affected by it. Almost all the money made from my album went into paying for [my mistake]," he said.
According to past reports, Ronald could have faced 20 years imprisonment and USD 250,000 in fines if he was convicted of breaching the US civil aviation regulations.
(Photo Source: Mingpao.com)
