Airliner hell as 40 passengers - many drunk - 'run amok' on flight from Gatwick to Cuba

[babylonsister]

Airliner hell as 40 passengers - many drunk - 'run amok' on flight from Gatwick to Cuba

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 3:58 AM on 03rd January 2009



More than 40 passengers ran riot on a Thomas Cook flight from London Gatwick to Cuba, with one trying to open the emergency exit in mid-flight.

On the return flight on December 30, the same group were again drunk and 17 were stopped from reboarding for the second leg of their trip at Cuba's Varadero airport.

Police met their flight at Gatwick and Thomas Cook is investigating events with a view to a possible complaint to police.

Up 40 passengers run amok on the Thomas Cook flight from Gatwick to Cuba

The passengers, thought to be from Ireland, are said to have 'run amok' on the flight to Holguin in Cuba on December 16.

They are alleged to have caused more drunken mayhem at their all-inclusive hotel in the resort of Playa Pesquero.

more...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1104517/Airliner-hell-40-passengers--drunk--run-amok-flight-Gatwick-Cuba.html?ITO=1490

[SidDithers]

1. Just as long as they don't suspiciously comment ...

about the engines being right outside their windows.

Sid

[malaise]

15. Wicked funny

Profound :rofl:

[L0oniX]

2. Damn Irish n/t

[TahitiNut]

3. "The passengers, thought to be from Ireland..."

Well, I guess that explains it. :banghead:

[babylonsister]

7. Hey, I'm part Irish and that made me laugh.

The Irish do know how to have a good time, though this group sounds a tad uncontrollable.

[TahitiNut]

28. It looks like drinking is well-facilitated at that resort.

... at one end of the pool, at least. :eyes: It must be Irish ... I see Paddy O'Furniture everywhere.

[BlooInBloo]

4. And American muslims just laugh.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Well, at least they didn't use any buzzwords like "safety"

that would have really panicked the crew.

[virgogal]

6. Looks like the lads were acting up a bit. Shame on them.

[peekaloo]

8. a fooking soccer match broke out in mid flight!

[mitchum]

12. LMAO!!!

nicely done :)

[zorahopkins]

9. Sounds Like A Bit Of Fun

It sounds like a bit of fun to me.

Long plane trips can be soooooo boring.

[malaise]

16. I remember when flying was fun-

drunks and all. Passengers and cricket teams mingling and singing on our way to test matches and carnival. Not one passenger tried to open emergency doors in those days.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. The contrast in reaction to this 'incident' and the recent scary muslim incident is repulsive.

I realize that of course drunken irishmen are quite amusing, heck back when I was a drunken half-irishman I found myself quite amusing too, and practical jokes like "trying to open the emergency exit in mid-flight" usually leave me in stitches, but somehow the fact that these idiots didn't end up munching carpet at gunpoint while a group of well behaved Indians who happen to be muslims and wondered aloud if sitting next to the jet engines was the safest place to sit got frogmarched by marshals just hits me the wrong way.

[Joe the Revelator]

11. It says they were stopped from reboarding.....what do you expect the airlines to do midflight

over the atlantic? Parachute them down to some Island?

[Warren Stupidity]

13. If they were muslims they would have been put into custody,

And when the plane landed they would all have been arrested.

[Joe the Revelator]

14. Who would have put them into custody over the atlantic?

You realize federal marshals are on less then 280 DOMESTIC flights in a given day.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. The crew.

Who put the shoe bomber into custody?


Passengers on flight 63 complained of a smoke smell in the cabin shortly after a meal service. One flight attendant, Hermis Moutardier, walked the aisles of the plane, trying to assess the source. She found Reid, who was sitting alone near a window and attempting to light a match. Moutardier warned him that smoking was not allowed on the airplane; Reid promised to stop. A few minutes later, Moutardier found Reid leaned over in his seat; her attempts to get his attention failed. After asking "What are you doing?" Reid grabbed at her, revealing one shoe in his lap, a fuse which led into the shoe, and a lit match. She tried grabbing Reid twice, but he pushed her to the floor each time, and she screamed for help. When another flight attendant, Cristina Jones, arrived to try to subdue him, he fought her and bit her thumb. The 6 foot 4 inch (193 cm) Reid was eventually subdued by other passengers on the airliner, using plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions, and headphone cords. One doctor administered Valium found in the flight kit of the aircraft.<4> The Flight was diverted to Boston's Logan International Airport. Authorities later found PETN plastic explosives with a triacetone triperoxide (TATP) detonator hidden in the lining of his shoes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid_(shoe_bomber)

Opening the emergency exit would be as fatal as blowing up one's shoe. Neither attempt was likely to be successful, but Reid is serving a life sentence, and these fine upstanding Irish drunks haven't even been charged with anything.

[Joe the Revelator]

20. Read the article...they were smoking cigarettes and letting their children run wild

Not lighting bombs or talking about bombing the airplane. They were kept from boarding their connection, but nothing they did should have resulted in Handcuffs over the atlantic.

[Warren Stupidity]

29. And trying to open the emergency exit

I did read the article.

[anigbrowl]

19. On landing, doofus.

[Joe the Revelator]

21. Doofus? Read the fucking subthread

The other poster wanted something done right then and there. THey were kept from reboarding UPON LANDING, "doofus".

[anigbrowl]

22. I did. You're off-base here.

I think these people should have been arrested and tried.

[Joe the Revelator]

23. They probably will be according to the article

But it would appear that their biggest crimes were not minding their children, smoking and being loud. Read the article, not the excerpt. The only quoted complaint from a passenger was that a kid hit her chair.

[anigbrowl]

24. "one trying to open the emergency exit in mid-flight."

Guess you don't think that matters? I have no sympathy for these people.

[Joe the Revelator]

27. I do think that matters, whats the argument? I just think the other posters self righteousness is

misplaced.

If I'm flying from JFK to Heathrow, I get drunk and try to open a door midflight, there isn't anything that can be done, short of sitting me in between two large men, until we get closer to some land. The article said the airline is going to pursue charges against those who did something like trying to open the emergency exit.

As I said in another thread, I take no chances when I fly, and those who were doing things that put the plane in danger should be charged. That is what appears to be happening.

[Warren Stupidity]

30. I already pointed you to exactly what has been done

you are just choosing to ignore it. Look - it was indeed just a bunch of harmless drunken irish some of whom were playing with the emergency exit which, although highly unlikely, could have taken the plane down if they had managed somehow to get it to open. No real harm. My point is that had they been muslims they would all be in jail right now. Had there been an air marshal with a plastic bullet pistol, somebody would have been shot. It isn't much of a point - I agree with you it is mostly self righteous idiocy on my part, but it is not entirely self righteous idiocy. 'fess up - I do have a bit of a point - we treat muslims like shit.

[Joe the Revelator]

25. Let me just be a bit more clear

I don't condone, at all, what these people did, however it appears that the airline took care of the matter once they were able to land. There aren't many opportunities between England and Cuba.

[anigbrowl]

18. Agreed. I hope they all get jail time.

I'm irish by the way. I see nothing funny about this.

[yodoobo]

26. Emergency exits - They always leave this part out

While its foolish to try and open an emergency exist while in flight, its also quite impossible.

The internal pressurization of the aircraft makes opening an emergency exist impossible in flight. Thats why airlines don't worry about seating people 2 inches next to one in the emergency exist isles.