Drunk Passenger Tried To Smoke Cigarettes Inside Plane Toilet Repeatedly

A Polish woman who was flying to Bristol, England, to look for a new job, was arrested after she got drunk on a Ryanair flight and repeatedly tried to smoke cigarettes in the plane’s washroom.

Edyta Skubala, 40, was not given any jail time for her actions, but was ordered to do 180 hours of community service and pay the court total costs of 250 pounds ($330), which included prosecution costs and a surcharge, Thursday. She had earlier pleaded guilty to being drunk in an aircraft during an incident that took place in December, Bristol Live reported.

The crew members on the Ryanair flight were alerted to her actions when another passenger started screaming. When flight attendants went over to investigate the matter, they discovered Skubala smoking in the bathroom. She was forced to extinguish the cigarette after the attendants told her that she was forbidden from smoking inside the plane.

However, after 10 minutes, more screaming was heard. Again the attendants traced the source of the screaming back to Skubala trying to sneak in a quick smoke inside the washroom – the second time also taking swigs from some duty-free liquor that she had bought before boarding the plane. When she was asked for her boarding pass, she reportedly screamed at them in Polish to “f--k off.”

Following her unruly behavior, the flight attendants made sure that she was only allowed to use the washroom with the doors open, lest she tried to smoke again. However, she somehow managed to attempt it two more times. “There were a further two incidents when the defendant tried to smoke thereafter,” prosecutor Clare Fear said. “So a total of four occasions when the defendant tried to light cigarettes whilst on flights.”

Katie Wildish, a probation officer, said that Skubala regretted behaving the way she did. “She's absolutely mortified by her behavior. She'd been to the funeral in Poland of her aunt who had been her primary carer as a child. She admits she was very emotionally distressed at the time.”

Wildish added that the charges against her have been very hard on both Skubala and her partner, who lives in Doncaster. Her sole intention of flying to Bristol was to try and get a job in Avonmouth. And with Skubala temporarily not allowed to work, the couple could barely afford to come to Bristol for court hearings.

“Ordinarily she drinks cider,” Wildish explained before the court. “By drinking the vodka her partner had purchased, she wasn't used to its strength [and] became drunk very quickly. Ever since she's been in the UK she's worked but since the offence she hasn't been able to work because the police have her passport."

Skubala’s lawyer, Rupert Russell, echoed Wildish’s sentiments. “She had not intended to cause danger or alarm on the flight. She was simply too drunk to listen to instructions or recognize the danger she was causing,” he said.

Before passing the judgment, the presiding judge condemned Skubala’s behavior and explained why she was not being sentenced to prison. “You were extremely drunk, you were causing a disturbance with people around you and smoking. There were three further persistent occasions when you tried to smoke on the plane ignoring instructions that you must not. And you were abusive and intimidating and I have no doubt people were fearful of your behavior,” the judge said.

“You are someone with no previous convictions, you present a very low risk of ever re-offending and you have been severely affected by these proceedings because you've been unable to work without having your passport. You have gone to big efforts to make sure you are at court on time for each of the hearings there have been and you've shown genuine and deep remorse,” the judge added.