A woman downed four double vodkas before police were called to the flight she was on at Manchester Airport.
Jessica Chance, 37, and her sister were on the TUI flight due to travel to Rhodes, when officers arrived at Terminal 2. An unknown man had been refused entry due to being drunk, but when police got there they found Chance at the bottom of the boarding stairs.
She had been removed from the flight, and was struggling with staff to get get back onboard, Manchester Crown Court heard. As officers tried to get her into a police van she was verbally abusive, calling one a "Nazi".
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Chance, of Wakefield, later admitted an offence of entering an aircraft when drunk and said she had "self-medicated" with booze due to her fear and anxiety about flying. She was handed a suspended sentence.
On September 15 last year, police were called to the flight after other passengers had complained about Chance’s ‘rowdy and loud’ behaviour. As officers attended, she was struggling with staff at the bottom of the plane’s boarding stairs, the MEN reports.
Tobias Collins, prosecuting, said: “Cabin staff confirmed that other passengers had told her to get off the plane, and after she got off the plane, she was trying to get back in." Chance had to be put in handcuffs before she was placed in the back of a police van to stop her from running onto the airfield, the court was told.
Her "drunken" behaviour continued, as she was abusive towards officers and used a derogatory slur towards one.
Mitigating for Chance, who was said to have no previous convictions or cautions, Ian Metcalfe said she had gone to her GP to seek a prescription due to a "high level" of anxiety about flying. The court was told she was suffering with mental health problems at the time for which she was prescribed medication.
Mr Metcalfe said: “The GP was no longer issuing prescriptions for that particular cause. She, therefore, assumed she was able to pick something up at the airport to pacify her, but nothing was available".
He said there was no risk of harm by her behaviour at the time, and she has since been dismissed from her job as a result of the court case.
Sentencing, Recorder Jennifer Cleeve said: “For passengers to reach a point that they have to complain about your behaviour, it shows that it must have caused some concern. You had drunk four double vodkas and some lager to assist with your anxiety. You drank an obscene amount of alcohol, this was not an attempt to ‘take the edge off’.
“However, you do not present a risk or danger to the public.”
Chance, of Meadowfields Drive, Crofton, was handed four weeks imprisonment which was suspended for a year, and ordered to complete 120 hours unpaid work.
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