Man jailed for kicking cabin crew
 

BBC NEWS | England | Merseyside | Man jailed for kicking cabin crew

A drunken airline passenger who punched and kicked cabin crew after they refused to serve him more alcohol, has been jailed for eight months.

Is it just me...or does 8 months seem way, way to short a time to jail him ?

I would have thought an offence like this would merit at least one year (and by that I mean a solid year behind bars.)

How you lot put up with the general fare paying public is beyond me ! You must all have the patience of Saints !

UK sentencing guidelines for assault show the range of recommended sentences for things like this (excluding, I think, the part of the crime that is about safety of aircraft). If we take it to be "Assault occasioning actual bodily harm" (around page 17), with things like "community service to 26 weeks imprisonment" for a non-premeditated assault resulting in minor injuries, 8 months would seem to be on the high end of the scale
(I am not a lawyer, or a judge, or a policeman). That would seem to me to be indicative of it being considered a serious offence and the judge seems to have given one of the longer sentences open to him/her (without too much chance of an immediate successful appeal).

On the personal soapbox: of course it's serious, and I think he should definitely go to jail for a while after starting and continuing a fight on board an aircraft in flight. Seems like the judge agreed as much as possible. Must have been scary for all the others around to have a drunken nutter punching and biting people!

Its a pity that this incident hasn't made the national press, or the evening news.
One benefit of the credit crunch is that hopefully the dole scum will be forced to stay in the UK.
If this moron cannot be trusted to travel on an aircraft, then the feckers passport should be removed - forever.

Should have been arrested on landing in Dominican.

Are you having a giraffe? They put up with it because they are paid to put up with it, why do you think they are trained in restraining people?

Don't get me wrong, no one deserves to suffer verbal/physical abuse at work & this guy is going to spend some well deserved time behind bars.

Just sounds to me like you are putting Cabin Crew up on a pedestal, they are no different to many other hard working, public facing people, like Nurses, Doctors, Police, Fire Brigade etc, all of whome regularly face abuse from the public, more so than the average Air Hostess IMHO :rolleyes:

Ok,My view is that of an SLF,so I do hope that my comments are taken with that in mind.
First off I think this guy is a total loser and deserved a lot longer than 8 months to think about his actions,it is totally unacceptable for anyone who has to deal with the public on a regular basis to be abused,or assaulted.There is no place in a supposedly civilised society for this sort of behaviour-Totally UNACCEPTABLE.
But I do take the comment " .as a bit over the top.
I know that cabin crew and other airline staff regularly have to put up with rude passengers but I would like to think that most passengers treat the staff with the respect they deserve,but as I don't work in the industry I can't really comment.
I have always been polite to cabin crew and have always received great service.
I hope I have been able to make my point fairly,and forgive me for posting on the CC thread,I thought I had a reasonably good point.

a very sad subject . . . . . . .
 

Please excuse the intrusion, obviously I'm not CC (though I do see quite a lot of CC when medicals are required !). But I can confirm from my own experience that abuse from the public (especially intoxicated ones) is a sad factor common to all our professions. I got a lot when I was a GP; my daughter-in-law is an A&E Staff Nurse; and in my view anyone who violently attacked CC as described here should get much more than just a few months in jail. One would also hope that he would be banned from ALL airlines for life.

Agree with NIGELINOZ. In all my travels, I have never met rude, or impolite uncaring CC. But then, like him, I have always been polite and respectful to them. You get back what you give. Lack of manners, these days is extremely distressing to me, and I can only pity the female CC for the c..p they have to put up with from what is regarded as normal laddish behaviour. Why serve alcohol on aircraft!!!!! Surely , if people can't manage life without artificial stimulants they should be seeking medical help, not holidays.!!!!

Well Im CC and I would agree with Wibblemonster, we do not put up with a fraction of the abuse police, medics, firemen etc put up with. To claim that we do would be to do a gross injustice to these professions.
We do put up with our fair amount of crud but no more then the Joe Bloggs working for London Underground, server at Mc Donalds or your local bus driver. However due to the remote nature of our job and the inability to have "backup" arrive in a matter of minutes we have to be highly trained to deal with these situations as they arise which perhaps gives some the false glorification that we are on a par with doctors, policemen, soldiers, firemen, hostage negiotiators, MI5 agents etc etc!!!
Some crew do place themselves on a pedestal and it tends to show glaringly in their service onboard, they are generally the ones providing atrocious and embarassing levels of service onboard.
At the end of the day we undergo 5-7 weeks of training for our role. Yes we learn a lot of very unique skills and we receive some very tailored and good to know first aid skills but we are by no means amongst societies true everyday heroes who have spend years training for their roles! :=

Apaddyyinuk

You are so right.

Until the day it all goes wrong and you die trying to save the passengers, like the newly qualified crew in the back of the airtours 737 in Manchester and countless others before and since.

If you are CC I am amazed at your post. "Service" is secondary. You deserve to be on a pedestal for what you might one day have to do.

At least in his time in jail they'll wean him off alcohol and onto proper hardcore drugs like crack.

Then we, the taxpayer will pay for his rehab and his appeal against his conviction.

Give him a Council House rent free and a disability allowance for being an addict.

Do you think I'm joking? His Legal Aid solicitor and the accused walk away very happy.

UK shafted once again. Is it any wonder there are more and more people leaving? You know, the ones who pay tax. The population is rising, but the influx bring nothing apart from claim forms.

Excrab,

You have totally missed my point! Yes we are there for safety and yes we do undergo training for the remote chance that one day we will have to put those skills into action. But I am not going to walk around with delusions of grandeur and claim I am a hero because one day I MAY have to evacuate an aircraft!
Heroism is individual, I would not become a policeman or join the army cos I dont think I could handle certain elements of the roles required, Im **** scared! But then people are **** scared of plane crashes!!! Now I know as a crewmember who flies worldwide countless times a year that the chances of anything serious occuring are very VERY slim and as long as I do not become complacent then I can ensure I help maintain this level of safety but while providing good customer service at the same time. Now a soldier or a police officer on the other hand.....they put themselves in the line of fire with a genuine threat to their safety on a daily basis!!! I certainly do not wake up in the morning and think "damn there is a very good chance I could be in a plane crash today"!
Now, with all the training we receive we must remember one thing....until we are in a serious situation we NEVER know how we will react! All our training could be thrown out the door. Also talking to some of my colleagues involved in the BA038 crash last January, no amount of training will prepare you for the real scenario! It is all well and good sticking your nose in the air and being flippant with your customers claiming you are only there for safety, but for all you know you are the one who will jump down that slide before anyone else out of blind terror!!!
We are not heroes just because we do this as a job! We cannot compare ourselves to other services such as the police, medics, fire brigade etc because we are just not in the same category, we are not out there day in day out saving lives, bringing people back from the brink, etc etc. Yes we have fire fighting skills, yes we have first aid skills, yes we have self defence and diplomacy skills but we are NOT fire fighters, medics, police or hostage negotiators!
When I have done something heroic then Ill be a hero but I am not a hero just because I am a highly trained safety officer disguised as a waiter. Now, on a personal note, I am a coast guard in my spare time :}!!!

Lordy ! It's amazing what one little sentence can spark off !

All I meant by my statement regarding cabin crew and putting up with the general public is that anyone who has to do this on a regular basis has my admiration.

I would have typed the same thing on the Professional Nurses Rumour Network or the Professional Fire Fighters Rumour Network - but as it happens this entry was made on the Cabin Crew section of PPRuNe - so it was focussed on audience of that forum. They all have my admiration (but I still don't know how they put up with this sort of cr*p!)

Whilst CC might be trained in restraint techniques - they simply shouldn't have to use these skills in this day and age on an airliner.

One final point - in my view, anyone whose prime purpose of their job is the safety of those around them deserves a wee pedestal..don't you think ?

Very delicate subject.
.

I have to disagree. What you are saying is that it's "OK" to be punched, I'm getting paid for it... Not my view; it's like saying it's OK for a brave soldier to get shot, he's been paid for it. I would advise you to chose words more carefully in the future, the interpretation is not in your favor I'm afraid.
*And how would you define an "average hostie" if one may ask?:confused:

It's a risk we take when we take the job; of course the idea is to diplomatically avoid any violence and abuse.

I agree with apaddyinuk, took the words out of my keyboard:D
It's yet another vicious circle; a brain surgeon maybe won't know the ins and outs of an a/c; but then again i don't know anything about brain surgery. My point is that we are good in our department, the neighbor is good in his. We may exchange information which will help either department
I really dislike the CC who put themselves on a pedestal. Yes you have a rather difficult job; however there is one thing being proud of what you do and another being over the top because you are a CC. A fine line that sadly now a days is crossed every so often.


Rgds,
ATS