Photo: nottstv.com
You know you’ve partied too hard if the plane you’re on has to make an emergency landing to boot you off. If that wasn’t enough of a lesson for 7 men from the U.K., spending some time behind bars will surely be.
On March 24, 2018, construction boss Michael Ward and 6 of his friends boarded a Thomas Cook flight out of Manchester, destination Las Vegas. Ward was about to get married and he had planned to have his bachelor party (or stag party, as it’s called across the pond) in the city that never sleeps or stops partying.
They made sure to get a head start: as the court heard the other day, when they boarded the plane, they were already severely drunk and causing some ruckus. However, it wasn’t until the plane was high in the air that they let completely loose, the Daily Mail informs.
In between doing pushups in the aisle, they harassed cabin crew and assaulted a female flight attendant by trying to lift up her skirt, threatened another, started fights and yelled profanities at fellow passengers. They punched and kicked each other and passenger chairs, they took their pants off to flash people, and they even “joked” about carrying bombs in their luggage.
After they were denied more alcohol, cabin crew confiscated 5 liters of alcohol from them, which they had bought at the airport duty free before boarding. The plane had to land at Winnipeg to drop them off and they were flown back to the U.K., where they were handed over to the British police. As they were being escorted off the flight in handcuffs, passengers applauded and cheered – they described the experience as an 8-hour “flight of pure hell.”
Ward and two other men were sentenced to 2 years in jail for being drunk on an aircraft and affray, while a third got a 19-month sentence for being drunk on an aircraft and a public order offense.
For the emergency landing, the plane had to dump 10,000 kg of fuel, and the unscheduled detour led to a 3-hour delay for the 300+ passengers on board, many of whom lost connecting flights. In total, including the tickets back to the U.K., this bachelor party cost Thomas Cook £29,182.
“You caused your fellow passengers a great deal of upheaval and stress with some of them missing connecting flights,” the judge told Ward in court, as per the same media outlet. “It is ironic you were flown home with tickets paid for by Thomas Cook and it may want to look at recouping some of the losses they incurred through the civil courts as a result of this shameful incident.”
They made sure to get a head start: as the court heard the other day, when they boarded the plane, they were already severely drunk and causing some ruckus. However, it wasn’t until the plane was high in the air that they let completely loose, the Daily Mail informs.
In between doing pushups in the aisle, they harassed cabin crew and assaulted a female flight attendant by trying to lift up her skirt, threatened another, started fights and yelled profanities at fellow passengers. They punched and kicked each other and passenger chairs, they took their pants off to flash people, and they even “joked” about carrying bombs in their luggage.
After they were denied more alcohol, cabin crew confiscated 5 liters of alcohol from them, which they had bought at the airport duty free before boarding. The plane had to land at Winnipeg to drop them off and they were flown back to the U.K., where they were handed over to the British police. As they were being escorted off the flight in handcuffs, passengers applauded and cheered – they described the experience as an 8-hour “flight of pure hell.”
Ward and two other men were sentenced to 2 years in jail for being drunk on an aircraft and affray, while a third got a 19-month sentence for being drunk on an aircraft and a public order offense.
For the emergency landing, the plane had to dump 10,000 kg of fuel, and the unscheduled detour led to a 3-hour delay for the 300+ passengers on board, many of whom lost connecting flights. In total, including the tickets back to the U.K., this bachelor party cost Thomas Cook £29,182.
“You caused your fellow passengers a great deal of upheaval and stress with some of them missing connecting flights,” the judge told Ward in court, as per the same media outlet. “It is ironic you were flown home with tickets paid for by Thomas Cook and it may want to look at recouping some of the losses they incurred through the civil courts as a result of this shameful incident.”
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