Originally Posted by
inOban
It occurs to me that until these people have got on to the plane, they aren't committing an offence of endangering the a/c, for which the penalties are substantial. Until then it's breach of the peace, or drunk and disorderly. I would expect that the crew had been forewarned; the groups had basically been given enough rope to hang themselves, which they duly did.
Quite right, If it's 2 different parties then perhaps it wasn't a problem until they boarded. With alcohol involved then a group who is 'merry' at the gate could quite quickly become aggressive if challenged by another alcohol fuelled passenger once boarded.
I've seen a similar thing myself, on another airline, years ago when I used to be a gate agent for a handling agent. I think it was a flight to Mallorca. A stag do came to the gate, around 15 of them in the group. All of them had drank a fair bit, but the vast majority of them were fine, if not just a bit loud. The rep and cabin supervisor came to the gate and spoke to them, they agreed to quieten down, agreed no booze would be served to them and they boarded. That is apart from one guy who refused to accept he wouldn't be given booze onboard and lashed out half way down the jetty at a dispatcher and my (female) colleague. The other lads tried to calm him down, he didn't, in the end the flight left with the entourage onboard and the groom to be being taken away in handcuffs!
