A drunken RAF employee was led off a flight in handcuffs after he refused to stop smoking an e-cigarette and vomited on seats.
There were 109 passengers on board the Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Inverness when Ben Munday decided to consume his own supply of alcohol and use an electric vape in the passenger cabin.
The delay created by Munday’s booze-fuelled antics had a knock-on impact on other flights, and Inverness Sheriff Court heard the 23-year-old had “no doubt cost Easyjet thousands, if not more”.
He ignored requests from flight crew to stop, leaving other passengers, including a mother and her two young children sitting directly in front of him “unsettled”, and even struggled with police when they arrived to remove him.
Munday pled guilty to charges of being drunk on board an aircraft, smoking on board and resisting, obstructing or hindering police officers in execution of their duty in relation to the incident on December 6 2020.
Fiscal Depute Hilary Michopoulou told the court: “The flight took off as normal. A short time into the flight air crew were requested to attend where the accused was sitting.
“He was smoking an e-cigarette and appeared to have a bottle of his own alcohol. People sitting next to him said they were ‘unsettled’.
“He was told by flight crew he should not be smoking his e-cigarette on the plane and he was not allowed to drink his own alcohol on the flight.”
The court heard that the warnings went unheeded and a short time later crew returned to find him “stretched out across all three seats and again smoking his e-cigarette”.
The fiscal went on: “He was challenged but took several more draws on the e-cigarette and blew the smoke around the cabin.”
Munday showed ‘utter shame and remorse’
Flight crew then alerted the captains to the situation, and a message was conveyed for police to be contacted, allowing them to meet the flight on landing.
Mrs Micholpoulou told the court: “Police boarded the flight and were directed to the accused. He was told he was under arrest for his behaviour on the flight.
“The police felt it was appropriate to handcuff him. As they went to put the handcuffs on him he struggled. He continued to struggle as he was taken down the steps of the plane.”
Munday was then placed in leg restraints before being placed in a police van and taken to Burnett Road Police Station.
The court heard that the incident caused knock-on issues for the airline due to the time taken to deal with the incident on the tarmac and the fact that Munday had vomited on seats, meaning cleaning had to be undertaken before flights were resumed.
‘You have no doubt cost Easyjet thousands, if not more’
Solicitor Mhyrin Hill, for Munday, told the court that her client had been suffering from “very poor mental health” at the time of the incident and was “using alcohol as a way of self-soothing.”
She said: “He has shown utter shame and remorse surrounding this.
“It is nothing like he has ever been involved in before and he continues to express regret remorse and shame in recognising the impact that it would have had on other passengers on the plane.”
She added: “He did not go out to cause any sort of problem but the alcohol essentially took control of him.”
Handing down a community payback order with 140 hours of unpaid work, Sheriff Gary Aitken told Munday, of West Hay Road, Hayling Island: “This must have been an exceptionally distressing and frightening experience for many of those on the plane.
“You have no doubt cost Easyjet thousands, if not more.
“You are very close to the point where the only way you could make matters up to society is by removing you from society for a period. You have got a job and seem to be well thought of, I trust that this will be the first and last time you will appear in court.”
Following the conclusion of the case, an RAF spokesman said: “We are aware that a service person has appeared and sentenced at Inverness Sheriff Court.
“The RAF will consider the court’s findings and take any appropriate action however it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
