Paul Blatchley

In addition, Mollway ordered Blatchley to pay $5,454 for damage to the airport.

The judge rejected a request by Blatchley's lawyer, Jane Kimmel, who said her client has been punished enough and should be released to home confinement. Kimmel said Blatchley wanted to kill himself and didn't want anyone else hurt. Blatchley drove to a relatively unpopulated area of the airport, honked, told people to get away and said he wanted to die, Kimmel told the judge. "He was a man crying for help," Kimmel said.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Wes Porter said Blatchley had gasoline cans in the vehicle. If they exploded, "telling people to move away wouldn't have mattered a whole lot," Porter said.

Blatchley, 54, who arrived in 2002 from Massachusetts, where he ran a botanical garden and a dairy farm, was working with a group that helped autistic children. He pleaded guilty in March last year to disrupting services at an international airport.

When he pleaded guilty, Blatchley admitted he bought three five-gallon gas cans, filled them with gas, drove to the airport and ignited gas that he splashed inside the Dodge Durango.

Blatchley yesterday told the judge he was "very sorry" and said he owes everyone in Hawai'i a "deep apology."

He said he always tried to do well. "I failed at one point because I kept too much to myself," he told Mollway. "I know now it was a big mistake."

Mollway said she understood he was affected by his unsuccessful attempt to save a surfer as well as his personal and financial problems but added that there was a "high potential" that a lot of people could have been injured.

Blatchley's lawyers said he had tried to save the surfer at Makena Beach the previous month.

Mollway said Blatchley's crime disrupted people's lives and made law enforcement officials spend hours investigating whether the incident was related to terrorism.

"This is a crime of great seriousness, and I cannot shut my eyes to the choice of place to commit this crime," she said.