Unruly pax - AVweb

Drunks On A Plane

By Russ Niles

A young English couple will start their lives together faced with the prospect of thousands of dollars in fines after the groom and five of his stag buddies were kicked off a Ryanair flight Friday. The six Englishmen, all aged 25-28, went to Berlin instead of their bachelor party destination of Bratislava. Apparently the other six members of their group had had enough of their boorish behavior, too, and carried on to Slovakia without them. The flight originated in London and the young men from Southampton face fines up to 25,000 euros and civil claims from the airline for the cost of the diversion. Meanwhile, an American man awaits his fate after being found guilty of being a one-man party diversion on a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia to Denver in 2015. It could be a lot worse than the tongue-lashing and second mortgage that awaits the British bridegroom. Late last week, the Department of Justice issued a news release describing the antics of Joseph Wayne Lynch, who was convicted in a three-day jury trial of interference with a flight crew. He could go to prison for 20 years and be fined $250,000. He missed his connection to Denver and apparently spent the unplanned layover in an airport bar. The airline tried to make amends by putting him in first class for the later flight but flight attendants also noticed he was drunk and decided to turn off the free drinks. He didn't like it much and the situation started to fall apart. Apparently it got so bad with Lynch that flight attendants armed themselves with a pot of coffee and an ice hammer to discourage him from escalating his behavior, which included kissing one of them on the neck and turning the air blue with profane epithets. But Lynch wasn't finished when the plane landed. He also unloaded on the police and FBI officers who turned up to take him away. Sentencing is set for May 16 and Lynch is out on bond.