Drunk Business Class Airline Passenger Abuses, Spits At Crew, Arrested

A drunk woman passenger on board an Air India flight from Mumbai to London manhandled the flight crew after she was refused another glass of wine Saturday.

The video of the incident shows the Irish passenger flying in the business class hurling abuses at the flight attendants and also spitting at one of them. In the video, she can be heard talking about the “human rights” work she has done as an international criminal lawyer including fighting for the Rohingyas, Palestinians and other indigenous communities.

The clip recorded by another crew member shows her uttering expletives over 40 times. According to reports, she was arrested after the flight landed at Heathrow Airport in London.

Though the exact sequence of events remains unknown, news magazine India Today reported that her rant began after the crew informed the commander that the woman was too drunk. The commander told them not to serve anymore alcohol and also instructed only the female attendants would handle the woman.

"You treat business class passengers like this? I work for all you f-----g people... But you won't give me a glass of wine... You can't give me a wee bottle of wine,” she is heard screaming in the video.

“The woman was seated in 1J. Two quarter bottles of red wine later, she went to the lavatory in the economy class. She emerged in a cloud of smoke... but the smoke alarm didn’t set off,” a source told local daily the Times Of India.

She turned unruly after finishing her drink and also lashed out at the other business class passengers for being mute witnesses.

“When she demanded yet another bottle, the crew declined. She then threatened to push over the dessert trolley. She saw an open bottle of wine on it and took it without permission. The captain issued her a warning letter, which she read out loud to other passengers. She then came to the gallery and spat in the face of a crew member, before twisting her arm and injuring her,” the source added.

“Serving of drinks is entirely at the discretion of the crew. We know when a passenger is drunk and cannot handle drinks. During cabin crew training, flight attendants are taught to de-escalate a situation. When a passenger is verbally abusive, behaving like that, serving her more alcohol would aggravate the situation,” a senior Air India flight attendant told the daily.

The incident comes a few days after an airline passenger was caught on camera hurling abusive, racist and homophobic rant on a man sitting near her as the plane was set to land at Los Angeles International Airport. The video showed her shouting and swearing in front of young children seated next to her on the plane.