Another in flight incident

Started by fatherted, October 13, 2018, 08:04:06 AM

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fatherted

The man who threatened to kill a crew member also hit the seat of an autistic child during the flight

NewsFuerteventura Newsroom

Kevin O'Hare, a 27-year-old British citizen, threatened the cabin stewardess on the four-hour Jet2 flight from Fuerteventura to Belfast on August 5. In addition, a 12-year-old boy with an autism problem went into shokc when O'Hare hit the front seat where the child was traveling.

The 27-year-old continued to scream and curse the police when he was arrested in Belfast. The man had been drinking since eleven o'clock in the morning, before boarding the flight from Fuerteventura to Belfast International Airport.

He was sentenced to five months in prison for threatening to kill and five months for assaulting the cabin crew. During the sentencing, the district judge said O'Hare's behavior was "appalling", adding that he was becoming "too frequent" on the planes.

In his opinion, the "custody threshold" had been crossed and a "clear message" should be sent that this type of behavior would not be tolerated, the judge added.

'Difficulty with alcohol'

O'Hare "does not remember anything in relation to the incident" and acknowledges that his behavior was "completely shameful and unacceptable," his lawyer added. In addition, he justified by saying that his client had "a long difficulty with alcohol, which went back more than 10 years".

There was no "physical contact at any time" between the defendant and the crew member, the lawyer said, but his client accepted that he would have caused the woman to fear an assault "while waving his arms".

He was also fined £ 200 for not obeying a legal order, and another £ 200 for boarding a plane when he was drunk

spitfire58

I always fail to understand why people are allowed to board when drunk !! If the checkin crew were doing their jobs properly these people would never get on in the first place !!

duncolm

Quote from: spitfire58 on October 13, 2018, 10:36:43 AM
I always fail to understand why people are allowed to board when drunk !! If the checkin crew were doing their jobs properly these people would never get on in the first place !!

That's easy to say, much harder to achieve. It is extremely difficult for staff to recognise that a person is drunk when they may only have a few seconds to observe them. There's also a difficulty when passengers cram in a drink or three at the airport bar shortly before boarding. They may not even start to display drunkeness until they're aboard the aircraft.

I was on an early morning flight to Malaga earlier in the year. Unsurprisingly there were a couple of stag parties on board and there had been one passenger refused boarding at the gate. He wasn't even on a stag party, he was one of a group of middle aged golfers from a posh suburb. Before the plane started to move the Captain made an announcement in her scariest, strictest schoolmistress voice, warning of dire consequences if there was any disruption. The flight passed without incident.

Lexeus

Frankly, air cabin crew these days are barely qualified to do anything, and no one should give them the power to say you can't get on the plane after you have paid money for your ticket, no-one with any sense would say otherwise after reading awful examples of cases where people have been given similar powers and then picked on people with disorders of the nervous system just because they couldn't walk in a straight line.

On the other hand, I think all air staff should be allowed to ask you to provide a breathalyser sample and then call the airport police to make a decision, the question is how drunk is too drunk. The real problem is that no one with any power wants to do anything about it because ultimately the cost of any such drunken incidents are tiny in relation to the money that is made from selling alcohol in airports/planes, and of course the airline always tries to sue the person for £40k or so to cover their costs.

spitfire58

Quote from: Lexeus on October 13, 2018, 15:19:19 PM
Frankly, air cabin crew these days are barely qualified to do anything, and no one should give them the power to say you can't get on the plane after you have paid money for your ticket, no-one with any sense would say otherwise after reading awful examples of cases where people have been given similar powers and then picked on people with disorders of the nervous system just because they couldn't walk in a straight line.

On the other hand, I think all air staff should be allowed to ask you to provide a breathalyser sample and then call the airport police to make a decision, the question is how drunk is too drunk. The real problem is that no one with any power wants to do anything about it because ultimately the cost of any such drunken incidents are tiny in relation to the money that is made from selling alcohol in airports/planes, and of course the airline always tries to sue the person for £40k or so to cover their costs.

Granted that the ground checkin staff are hardly qualified. However they do (whatever another poster implies) have a good deal of time to observe the queue at check in. All they have to do (obviously) is alert the airport police to a situation they are uncomfortable with & the passenger can be taken out of the queue by the police & assessed without holding up anything else concerning boarding. Far to many do Goode`s these days saying you can`t do this or that or impinge on someone`s freedom of rights !! If you are intoxicated trying to get on a flight - no flight - end of !!!