Overview
- Video recorded by a passenger on Thursday shows a man repeatedly leaving his seat on British Airways flight BA275 from Heathrow to Las Vegas while a female flight attendant ordered him to stay seated and warned she would restrain him.
- The pilot returned the A350-1000 to the terminal so Metropolitan Police could board and officers arrested the 31-year-old on suspicion of being drunk on an aircraft and failing to obey the captain’s orders.
- Police identified the man as Emmet Moynihan of Mount Vernon, Cork, and charged him on August 7 with being drunk on an aircraft and disobeying the captain; he was bailed to appear at Uxbridge Magistrates Court on August 26.
- The disturbance delayed departure and the flight reached Las Vegas roughly two hours late, a delay that fell short of the three-hour threshold for UK261 compensation claims.
- The viral footage and a DJ’s remix of the attendant’s ‘stay seated’ audio have focused public praise on the crew’s actions and drawn renewed attention to how airlines and police handle disruptive passengers.