Easy Jet brawl diverts flight
 

Just heard that tonights MAN-MUC flight has diverted to Frankfurt after a drunken brawl with some of the punters on board. Lets hope the Germans sort them out:mad:

Well I can not comment on if it is true or not.

However such behaviour is sadly to be expected from time to time when cabin crew are under pressure to sell to passengers and having promotional deals on alcoholic drinks just exacerbates the problem. :ugh:

To blame cabin crew sales for this is outrageous. Much more likely they got on board well oiled up. Who was responsible for letting them on in that state is the question?

This was a regular occurrence over the summer with the late STN - IBZ. Let's be honest, it comes down to the quality of passengers that are carried and the fact that 9/10 times they were let on board already plastered...

.. but they pay the wages so apparently it's okay.

I never want to work an IBZ turn again. Great for the commission but that's about it.

EDIT - just read the above comments and yes, it usually comes down to the fact that they've been drinking the whole wait in the terminal and that they've smuggled their own alcohol on board and have been very successful in drinking it out of the C/C sight. Unfortunately OTP pressurises crew against offloading the passengers as the time taken for a bag search is unattractive to the company.

It's been illegal to carry an intoxicated person for as long as I can remember. It's strange how the industry has always plied their customers with liberal quantities of alcohol.

The thing about getting drunk is the feeling that 'It'll be okay to have another', once the first drink or two have been consumed. The only sure way to avoid situations like this is to have a maximum legal level of blood alcohol for passengers as well as aircrew. Somehow, I just don't see this happening.

Totally disagree. The only sure way is to:-

• jail these idiots
• ban them from ever boarding an aircraft again
• take away their passports

Problem solved.

So it's back to deterrent sentencing again is it? Better not get me going on that one.

100% correct.

The alternative being what? A nice little tap on the wrist and asking them very nicely not to do it again? :yuk::yuk::yuk:

The only way to get through to these louts is to slap them down hard. The namby-pamby liberal take on dealing with them is both unlikely to succeed, and inappropriate in this context.

The situation will only improve when airlines actually stick to their own rules regarding alcohol.

Well, that's a starting point.


The thing is, that one can instill fear into almost all reasonable people. After the first few drinks, people are no longer reasonable.

Again I totally disagree. Live in S E Asia where punishment does fit the crime and the same drunken louts soon learn to behave themselves.

Despite cheap booze, street crime is quite unusual, drunken acts on aircraft, again very rare. These same louts do come here too. Difference is, they KNOW their behaviour will NOT be tolerated. Step out of line and the will be slapped down hard.

McClaren found that out the hard way!!

These stories always amaze me. I fly quite lot andover the years have never run into such a situation. Are Canadians more civilized? First bar service I order two scotches, then another two. Then I can sleep for three thousand miles and turn a 9 hour flight into a 3 hour flight.

There is a lot of hypocrisy within the airlines about this. The remedy is simple and doesn't require costly legal intervention. They should adopt the same approach as football grounds and pubs, etc. Work collectively and ban them from all outlets. It would be a genuine deterrent if offenders were banned from all airlines.

I seem to remember some long necked lout who calls herself a super-model, being banned from BA. She was promptly feted by Virgin and welcomed with open arms.

I have very little sympathy for an industry which, for profit, compounds the problem. You allow them to board drunk, ply them with drink and fail to act firmly. I was recently on a Paris to EMA flight, where a passenger was told three times to pipe down before we even left the gate. Everyone knew he would a nightmare the whole flight, and he was. Why wasn't he disembarked? Because it costs money and that is more important.

It's not just about drink though.I had passengers fighting shortly after landing in Amsterdam some time ago.

All the people involved were women;there was a racial element, fists flew and throats were grabbed.Yes Cabin Crew were assaulted and we did eventually persuade the AMS police to press charges.

All this was 'kicked off' by a twenty something home counties girl who was seemingly calm during the flight.

She was certainly on something....but it wasn't alcohol.

Binder

"The joys of flying loco's !"

The only fight i've seen on a flight was when I was sat in BA's club world a few years ago!

Some crew rooms nowadays seem more like a statisticians office with individual sales targets and their associated performance on show for all to see. There is immense pressure placed upon cabin crew to generate on board revenue. The airline has crossed the line if they are arming their crew with cheaper promotional deals on alcohol. So whilst it is illegal for the airline's customers to be intoxicated on board the aircraft, they are willing to ply them with cheaper alcohol. :ugh:

Crew sell more than alcohol, and alcohol doesn't attract the best commissions in any case, so pressure to make on-board sales doesn't equate to pouring alcohol down passenger's throats! :rolleyes: As the crew are the ones who have to deal with the "problem drinkers", believe me they are well aware of the problems of serving too much alcohol and are usually the first to stop service. :hmm:

Actually the law sanctions boarding an aircraft while intoxicated, which may sound pedantic, but it means that (as in pubs and the like) the responsibility for serving the alcohol lies with the person serving it. It is also the reason why consuming your own alcohol on board is forbidden.

How about allowing sober pax to take the louts to court for compensation. Say £100 each plus hotel bill per passenger might be effective.

Let's say that an unruly drunken passenger has the same potential to cause major disruption on a flight as the pilot.

Let's say that in an intoxicated and uneducated (re. aircraft systems/flight safety) individual is more likely than the pilot to cause such disruption, given his inebriated state.

Why then should passengers not be held to the same standards of sobriety as the flight crew at boarding, or if that seems a stretch at least held to the standard of blood alcohol legal to drive?

Flag troublemakers at the gate and let them have a blow. Over the limit, no boarding.

Punishment is closing the barn door after the colt has bolted, what say keep the problem at the gate and let the ground staff/airport police handle it.

I believe that this problem doesn't exist at airlines such as Saudia Arabian, Royal Brunei, and Kuwait Airways, amongst others.

Maybe others could follow. I certainly wouldn't miss alcohol on board, I can't remember the last time I had alcohol on a flight even when it was free and plentiful.