Drunk Airline Passenger Allegedly Broke Flight Attendant's Leg, Attacked Pilots, Officers

A drunk Aeroflot passenger reportedly attacked the pilots of the aircraft and broke the leg of a flight attendant before getting arrested.

The incident occurred before the flight was about to fly from Novosibirsk, Siberia, to Moscow with 158 passengers. Maxim Pashnin, 36, a plumber from Chelyabinsk, Russia, faces up to six years in jail after he was charged with air hooliganism and violence against law enforcement officers.

“An incident took place in board of Aeroflot SU1307 flight from Novosibirsk to Moscow, May 14, due to the destructive behavior of one passenger,” the airline company said a statement. “Having got on board with signs of alcohol intoxication, the man has violated the rules of behaving on board Aeroflot planes.”

His disrupting behavior was caught on camera. As other passengers were boarding the plane, Pashnin, who was already inside, started behaving aggressively toward a female flight attendant. It happened after he was told to put his cigarette out.

A video, taken by one of the passengers on the flight and obtained by Mirror Online, showed a male crew member defending his colleague. “Hey, hey, don’t touch the young woman [flight attendant]. Why are you raising your hand on her? Why are you raising your hand to a woman?” the male attendant was heard saying in the clip.

"Shall I smash your face?” Pashnin threatened, adding, “She put her camera on me!”

The passenger was seen pushing the male attendant in the video, and in another alleged attack, authorities said he pushed the female crew member into the cockpit. The pilot and the co-pilot also got involved and tried to restrain the drunk passenger. “Pashnin pushed the young woman stewardess inside the cockpit and then hit the pilots, the captain and the co-pilot. These three crew members resisted and managed block the hooligan, and to pass him into the hands of police. The plane flew without the man,” the police said.

The pilots managed to knock down Pashnin before he was removed from the flight and restrained.

“After that the man initiated the fight with passengers and with policemen who arrived to remove the hooligan from the flight. As a result, the senior steward has got an injury – his leg was broken… Aeroflot intends to demand the maximum punishment with paying damages to both the aviation company and its employees,” the statement from the airline said.

In a second video, the passenger was reportedly seen attacking the police officers. After behaving aggressively in Novosibirsk airport’s police station, he was booked into a holding cell. He reportedly told authorities, “It is hard to fly Aeroflot when you are sober,” making a reference to the incident of May 5, when a flight of the airline caught fire while making an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

Pashnin was later evaluated by a doctor, who confirmed he was intoxicated.

"It's lucky all this happened at the airport rather than when we were flying. Can you imagine the terror if he had gone crazy during the flight?" a passenger, who witnessed his behavior, said.

As a result of his antics, the flight was delayed by 20 minutes. Pashnin was to be blacklisted and banned from flying with Aeroflot.