MAN SMOKES ON JET FLIGHT, HELD IN ASSAULT OF ATTENDANT

BANGOR - An Italian tourist who insisted on smoking during his
transatlantic flight pleaded guilty yesterday to assault on a flight
attendant that prompted the DC-10 jetliner to make an unscheduled stop in
Maine.

Continental Airlines Flight 45, carrying 145 passengers from Milan to
Newark, N.J., was diverted to Bangor on Friday after Ignazio Miliano, of
Ribera, Italy, lighted up a cigarette while he was in a jetliner bathroom.
A flight attendant apparently asked Miliano, 47, to put out his cigarette.

''My understanding is he put his arm on the stewardess. I suspect they
asked him more than once [to stop smoking],'' said Norman Kominsky, his
lawyer. ''He was angry that he couldn't smoke.''

Miliano was removed from the plane in Bangor and charged with simple
assault. Forty minutes later, the passengers on Flight 45, including
Miliano's son, took off for Newark, where the defendant's relatives were
waiting.

Yesterday, US District Judge Morton Brody sentenced Miliano to seven days
in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Miliano has been held since Friday at the Penobscot County Jail, which has
a no-smoking policy.

''It's difficult for him. He doesn't speak English and he doesn't
understand anyone at all. They won't let him smoke in jail and he is
evidently a very addicted smoker,'' Kominsky said.

Karla Villalon, a spokeswoman for Continental Airlines, said she did not
know if the airline would honor the remainder of Miliano's ticket to
Newark. He may have to pay for a new one.