State briefs for July 6

Man to pay $172K for disrupting flight

HONOLULU (AP) — A man whose behavior on a Hawaiian Airlines flight to South Korea forced it to return to Honolulu has been ordered to pay the air carrier more than $172,000.

Kyong Chol Kim was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail for interfering with flight attendants and crew members on the flight in February.

Prosecutors say the 48-year-old South Korean man drank a bottle of whiskey before the flight and later bothered a child seated next him.

Prosecutors say he lunged at a flight attendant after the employee confronted him about his behavior.

U.S. service members on board helped restrain Kim as the flight turned around.

Kim was ordered to pay Hawaiian Airlines the cost of returning the flight and accommodating passengers waiting for the plane in South Korea.

Headstones overturned at cemetery

HONOLULU (AP) — Officials say vandals knocked down more than two dozen headstones at a historic church cemetery in downtown Honolulu.

Kawaiahao Church Board Chairman Brickwood Galuteria said that a maintenance worker discovered the damage early Wednesday.

The heavy stone grave markers — some more than a century old — were found toppled off their bases. The vandalism was reported to police.

Volunteers were working with a historian Thursday to carefully right the overturned stones.

The church and cemetery are part of the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site. The Kawaiahao Church was the first Christian church built on Oahu.

Galuteria says the church has been assuring families that it will pay for the damage.