Bite or flight?
A Jet2 flight was forced to turn around after a drunken passenger named Lewis Howarth staggered about the aisle and called a stewardess a “d—kh—d” for telling him to fasten his seatbelt, among other antics. The details of the rampage came to light in a hearing at the Royal Magistrates Court in Manchester.
“I will never understand why people think behavior like this is appropriate. It never can be justified,” one of the arresting officers named PC Morton told the court, The Cavendish Press reported.
The incident occurred on August 29 aboard a flight that was slated to fly from Manchester to Dalaman, Turkey, but had been delayed for 90 minutes, the court heard.
Howarth, 36, had been drinking heavily in the departure lounge prior to boarding and his inebriated state set off alarm bells among crewmembers, according to prosecutor Gareth Hughes.
Noticing that his seatbelt wasn’t fastened, one stewardess told him to do so, but the Manchester native failed to secure the buckle in his intoxicated state.
“He was slurring his words and swearing, he had dilated pupils and his coordination was very poor and he was unable to put a seat belt on,” Hughes told the court.
After informing the captain of the incident, the flight attendant continued to speak to the lout.
That’s when the situation took a serious nosedive. “He got out of his seat and called her a ‘d—h—d’ and was asked to sit down and told he could be removed,” recounted Hughes, noting that the plane was making its way from the runway to the gate at this point.
However, the passenger reportedly stood up and got in her face, at which point the captain decided to return to the gate and have the hooligan removed.
When police boarded the plane, they were greeted with applause from grateful passengers, but the ordeal was far from over.
At that point, Howarth, who was at the back of the aircraft, stood up only to stumble and immediately have to grab a seat to steady himself. One of the officers tried to escort him off the aircraft, but he told the authorities “f–k off you pr–k.”
Due to the Brit’s aggressive behavior, authorities decided to restrain him with one officer grabbing the scruff of his neck and the other holding his arms from behind. Despite being twisted into a pretzel, Howarth still thrust his head at passengers sitting in their seats, the Cavendish Press reported.
To prevent head-butting, officers lifted him up and carried him horizontally like a battering ram, before laying the hellion on the jet bridge in handcuffs. They then used a wheelchair to wheel him to a police van waiting on the airfield.
En route to the transport, Howarth threatened to bite Officer Ben Morton and tried to sink his teeth into his hand. He also managed to kick another officer in the mouth, which fortunately didn’t cause serious injury as he was wearing socks despite temporarily hurting his mouth and teeth.
The officer then struck Howarth in the stomach to stop the assault.
Interestingly, Howarth didn’t appear to feel too remorseful for his actions.
He subsequently flew to Turkey on a different airline the following day with his partner and children, and even joked about the ordeal on Facebook, quipping: “Right, let’s try this again. Just a coke this time.”
FB photos taken from Howarth’s vacay show him riding a jet ski, going boating and even cuddling up to camels.
His relief could be short-lived.
During the court hearing, the defendant was told he could serve two years in jail after he pleaded guilty to being intoxicated on an aircraft, common assault of an emergency worker and assault by beating.
The bozo has also been blacklisted by Jet2.
“As a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive passenger behavior, and we can confirm that Mr. Howarth has been banned from flying with us for life,” declared an airline representative.
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