A British woman who slapped her fellow passengers and attempted to open the plane doors mid-flight has been banned for life from flying Jet2 airlines and fined £5,000 ($6,600), Metro reports. Catherine Bush was flying from Manchester to Antalya, Turkey when she became extremely disorderly and refused to calm down, eventually meaning the flight had to be diverted to Vienna to take her into custody.
- Her wild behavior was caught on camera. Footage of the incident shows her shouting and trying to fight with cabin crew aboard the flight and refusing to sit down when asked. According to some passengers, Bush had been “kicking off” before the flight even took off.
- Bush became incensed by babies crying on the journey. This is what is said to have set her off, as well as people “looking at her funny” during the flight. However, given that she seemed in a mood before boarding was even finished, it was a very bad day for her in general, it would seem. As one passenger told Manchester Evening News of her tirade: “There was lots of noise. Then she came to the front of the plane. She was really angry towards Jet2 staff and wouldn’t calm down.”
- It wasn’t long before things escalated. Not content with simply screaming and shouting, Bush then allegedly became even more animated and started to get physical. “Her voice was getting louder and more aggressive – she was shouting in people’s faces,” the passenger recalled. “People were saying she was kicking off at the airport before she even got on the plane. Then some people said it was over babies crying on the flight. A customer said something and she slapped him in the face. Then a man got up to try and calm the situation before taking her to the back of the plane.”
- Bush then tried to get out of the plane mid-flight. Samantha Feardon, who was also on the flight, told Yorkshire Live that Bush was trying to open the plane door. “She was ragging at the door, saying ‘get me off this f***ing plane – let me off now.’ It was just so shocking,” she recalled. Feardon admitted that Bush’s antics made her fear for her life. She went on to say that Bush allegedly slapped another passenger as well before the plane was rerouted.
- Bush was said to be on her way to get her teeth whitened. She was going to pay a Turkish dentist £3,000 for the procedure, MailOnline claims. However, that didn’t happen, and now she’ll never fly with Jet2 again. “Ms. Bush displayed a continued pattern of appalling behavior on the flight and she must now face up to the consequences of her actions,” Jet2 managing director Phil Ward said in a statement. “We have always made it abundantly clear that, as a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behavior and that we will vigorously pursue any costs incurred as a result of such an incident. Although such incidents are very rare, it is unacceptable that our customers and crew should have to experience it. We would like to apologize to anyone who had to experience this behavior and we would like to commend our highly-trained crew for their exceptional handling of this difficult situation.”
