Air rage passenger jailed for 12 months
29.09.07
A 53-year-old man who terrified fellow passengers on board a holiday flight and assaulted an air steward has been jailed for 12 months. Stephen Robinson, from Darlington, clambered over seats and other passengers to hit an air steward after being told to put out a cigarette on a Thomas Cook Turkey to Newcastle Airport flight in March. He was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted endangering the safety of the aircraft and causing actual bodily harm.
The court heard that Mr. Robinson became aggressive after trying to use a House of Fraser store card to buy drinks on the flight last March. He then clambered over other passengers in his row of seats after he was told to extinguish a cigarette. In the melee that followed airline steward Philip Miles was hit in the face so hard that it caused damage to 8 of his teeth.
Cabin crew on board the plane needed help from passengers to restrain him after the attack and to hold him down before he could be handcuffed. The busy Boeing 757, flying from Antalya to Newcastle, was diverted to Frankfurt Airport in Germany where Mr. Robinson was removed.
Kristian Mills, defending, said Mr. Robinson had no money and was forced to eat leftovers from canteens as he roamed the German airport for two days. He eventually asked a charity to fund his flight home as nobody in the UK was willing to act as a guarantor, and had to travel home by road.
Sentencing him to 12 months in jail, Judge Brian Forster QC told Mr. Robinson: 'You terrified the people who were near you and you made the life of the aircraft crew very difficult.' He added that the court had no power to ban Mr. Robinson from flying again, but that he had been blacklisted by Thomas Cook.
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