A “nervous” United Airlines passenger who downed a drug and alcohol cocktail before urinating on his seat has been fined £8,435 following his “appalling” behaviour.
Zachary Greear, 34, forced a Newark-bound flight to be diverted to Dublin on Monday after he mixed the tranquilliser xanax with booze before becoming disprutive on the United Airlines flight. The flight, which had departed from Amsterdam, had to dump more than £24,000 worth of fuel following the passenger’s “appalling” behaviour.
The plane had been in the sky for just two hours when Greear began acting “unruly”, disrupting passengers and urinating over his seat and in the aisle. After the plane landed, police said he was so drunk he “couldn’t understand where he was.”
Greear was arrested and pleaded guilty to intoxication, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, and causing annoyance onboard an aircraft. Judge Michéle Finan labelled his actions “appalling” after the 153 passengers and its 13 crew members were forced to deal with the unruly passenger.
“Can you imagine the fear and trauma he caused to a pilot who is trying to manage people safely on his aircraft, to passengers, to employees of the airline who have to dump fuel and turn around a flight and land in a jurisdiction they never expected to be in?” the judge said.
Greear was handed a two-month suspended sentence for two years on Tuesday. However, she recognised his written apology and his willingness to pay the £8,435 fine for damages he caused. His solicitor, Eoghan O’Sullivan, said his client was “horrified and embarrassed” by his behaviour and had offered a “most sincere apology.” He had no previous convicitons.
The shocking incident comes after Ryanair said it wants to limit the number of drinks they serve to passengers to just two amid a “major misconduct clampdown.” The new measures would see airlines serving a maximum of two drinks per passenger in a bid to stop unruly drunks.
“It is time that European Union authorities take action to limit the sale of alcohol at airports,” a represenative for Ryanair declared in a statement. The low-budget airline said it was suing a passenger for just over £12,000 after a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote, Spain, was forced to divert to Porto and had to be delayed overnight due to disruptive behaviour.
A Ryanair spokesperson claimed European governments are failing to take action “when disruptive passengers threaten aircraft safety and force them to divert.” They believing imposing a limit of the number of drinks would result in “a safer travel experience for passengers and crews.”
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