Disruptive passenger, Joshua Strickland, has been jailed for six months after his abusive and aggressive behaviour forced Jet2.com to divert a flight from Leeds Bradford to Manchester last month.
The 21 year old from York, who had been consuming his own alcohol illicitly on the Larnaca bound flight, not only threatened a family but also verbally abused a cabin crew member.
The leisure airline made the immediate decision to divert into Manchester where he was arrested and charged by Greater Manchester Police.
Strickland appeared at Manchester Crown Court on 25 August 2016, where he pleaded guilty to being drunk on board an aircraft and received the six month jail sentence.
In addition Jet2.com has said that they will be vigorously pursuing to recover £10,300 for the costs incurred by this unnecessary divert and has issued him with a lifetime ban.
Phil Ward, managing director of Jet2.com, said:
We are thrilled with the decision by Manchester Crown Court today. Joshua Strickland’s violent outburst was absolutely unacceptable and caused a lot of distress plus significant delays for our customers.
Our customers, many of whom are families, should be able to look forward to an enjoyable flight experience with us and we will not let a disruptive few spoil this.
We will take whatever action necessary to stamp it out. Passengers should be in no doubt that the consequences of abusive and unruly behaviour onboard aircraft do lead to custodial and financial penalties.
Jet2.com’s Onboard Together initiative commits the airline to a zero tolerance stance against disruptive passenger behaviour, including banning the sale of alcohol onboard all flights before 08:00BST.
So far more than 500 passengers have been refused travel and over 60 of these have been given lifetime bans.
