Article
Jet2.com Bans Passengers for Extreme Antisocial Behaviour
Published: Tue 21 Jul 2015 at 09:11
Updated: Wed 22 Jul 2015 at 12:28
- Passengers handed over to police, denied flight home and banned for life
- Jet2.com continues Onboard Together campaign to stamp out industry wide surge of disruptive flyers
Leading leisure airline Jet2.com has taken further action to protect its customers and cabin crew from aggressive behaviour on a flight from Glasgow Airport last week in a bid to stamp out anti-social behaviour as part of the Onboard Together programme.
Paul Strain, Kevin Brady & Claire Marshall were travelling together on a Jet2.com flight from Glasgow Airport to Dalaman on 13th July 2015. Following extreme antisocial behaviour, they were handed over to the Turkish authorities.
After the three passengers were found consuming illicit alcohol and consequently refused drinks from the bar, the party verbally abused the cabin crew. The obscene language, led by Strain & Brady, continued throughout the flight undeterred by verbal and written warnings from the crew. Brady sang loudly and danced down the aisle, stripped off his t-shirt and made vulgar sexual gestures, thrusting at a member of the cabin crew and then throughout the cabin, in full view of families with children. When firmly asked to sit down, he spat in the face of the senior cabin crew whilst physically blocking the walk-way along with torrents of verbal and threatening abuse.
Prior to landing, Strain and Brady refused to hand over e-cigarettes which they smoked and Brady was spotted stealing wine from the bar. During descent, he refused to wear his seatbelt, remove his earphones and turn off his mobile phone. All three passengers were escorted off the aircraft by the captain and handed over to Turkish police who were able to observe their aggressive behaviour first hand. The trio continued to show threatening behaviour towards the Captain, followed by ripping up official documents and finally spitting at the Turkish police.
Jet2.com handed the three passengers over to the Turkish Police who held them in Turkish cells whilst reports were concluded. Jet2.com will be pursuing further action with the Turkish authorities. They have also engaged with Police Scotland and will be looking at further action for these passengers on home ground.
Strain and Brady have been issued with lifetime bans from travelling with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. Marshall has received a 6 month ban. All three passengers have been denied access onto their return flight.
Phil Ward, Managing Director of Jet2.com said: “Aggressive behaviour will simply not be tolerated. Families and friends travelling on any airline should have an enjoyable time from the moment they step on to the aircraft. They should not have to experience aggressive behaviour, nor should our dedicated cabin crew.”
“These are clear examples, indeed some of the worst I have come across, of why we need a national shared database of passengers that have been banned for disruptive behaviour for the airlines to tackle the growing problem together. We will do everything we can to stamp out this industrywide issue through our Onboard Together programme.”
Jet2.com has already put in place a series of measures under its ‘Onboard Together’ programme, to educate passengers about the effects of alcohol at high altitude, and to outline its policies. It has empowered its staff to take decisions quickly regarding disruptive passengers including verbal and written warnings and, ultimately, the ability to divert the aircraft to the nearest airport to off-load particularly offensive people before flying remaining passengers onto their holiday destination. Measures also include banning disruptive passengers for life, handing them over to the police, issuing a bill for the cost of the diversion and taking legal action, post travel.
