A passenger who attempted to open the aircraft door mid-flight over a crying baby has been banned from flying for the rest of her life
After having a meltdown and attempting to open the plane door while in mid-flight, Jet2 has banned a customer who was flying for a cosmetic operation. Catherine Bush, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was on her way to Antalya, Turkey, to obtain 20 zirconium veneers that cost around £3,000.
After the flight had to make a temporary stopover to expel her, the disturbed woman was banned from the airline for life and fined £5,000.
“I was with Catherine in the pub at the weekend. She told me she was excited about going to Turkey,” a friend of hers said. “She said that she had scraped together £3,000 from her savings for cosmetic surgery on her teeth. She was going to have them whitened.”
However, her attitude may force her to cancel her whitening appointment in order to avoid paying the fine.
“Ms. Bush displayed a continued pattern of appalling behavior on the flight, and she must now face up to the consequences of her actions,” said Phil Ward, managing director of Jet2.
“We have always made it abundantly clear that, as a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour and that we will vigorously pursue any costs incurred as a result of such an incident.”
He also said, “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.”
The company has also promised to take part in any future investigations that may be necessary.
The incident began 90 minutes after they left Manchester, when children and babies were heard making noises while people were apparently laughing at the perpetrator. As things progressed, she approached the passengers in the front row, and she began shouting with the cabin personnel as well.
A witness remembered attempting to exit the jet while it was still in the air “She was ragging at the door, saying ‘get me off this f***ing plane – let me off now’. It was just so shocking.”
Another participant described what they had seen “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. Her voice was getting louder and more aggressive – she was shouting in people’s faces.”
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,” they said.
The plane landed in Vienna to remove the woman, and she slapped another passenger as she was being escorted out.
A witness said, “This is the first time we have had to land because of someone on a flight. Jet2 staff handled the whole situation very well. Nobody could help the out-of-control woman once she slapped the passenger.”
In a text message delivered the same day, Jet2 also apologized to the passengers for the event. Because of Catherine Bush, the flight was 75 minutes late and spent a little over an hour in Vienna.
