A 33-year-old woman received a suspended sentence following a 90-minute frenzy on a TUI flight from Manchester to Cuba, where she verbally attacked passengers and assaulted flight attendants, a court was told.
The woman reportedly pleaded guilty before the Manchester Crown Court for being drunk while onboard an aircraft and three counts of assault by beating, earning herself a five-month sentence to be served suspended for 18 months, a travel ban for one year in the UK, obligatory monitoring of her alcohol intake, and a £75 damages award to each of the victims.
Zoe Alexander had become unruly some six hours into the flight after consuming brandy and calling for drinks, saying that she wanted to have so much alcohol that she could pass out.
In her nearly 90-minute frenzy, Alexander verbally abused passengers and flight attendants, kicked staff members, punched a male steward in his stomach, ripped his tie, bit the staff members and passengers, and even tried to light a cigarette inside the plane. The woman shouted a highly offensive expletive at a female flight attendant.
As Alexander was verbally abusing the passengers during the flight, one person attempted to intervene, and Alexander said to him, “I hope bad things happen to your children. I hope they die.”
Using an onboard restraint kit, the crew managed to hold Alexander until they landed in Cuba.
