A flight attendant asked a passenger not to walk past a sleeping baby, but she claimed crew were ‘only there to serve drinks and food’

An architect has been convicted in her absence of four offenses tied to a drunken confrontation with cabin crew on a flight to London. According to LBC, Simone de Gale, who is 44, was found guilty at Ealing Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. The counts cover assault by beating, intoxication on an aircraft, disorderly or abusive conduct toward crew, and threatening or abusive behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

The incident happened in February on the Virgin Atlantic service from Dubai to Heathrow. Flight attendant Sarah Jane Buckland asked her to avoid a stretch of the cabin where a family with an infant was asleep. Prosecutors described the passenger as “really aggressive.” She used profanity, told the crew she was an architect and accused them of racism, officials stated. Several passengers also testified that she repeatedly swore at the crew.

Officials also alleged that she jabbed at Buckland’s neck and pulled on her cardigan. “We were all trying to defuse this lady,” Buckland testified, adding that the confrontation left her shaken. Fellow traveler Graham Cox gave evidence that she was “very loud, boisterous, aggressive” and kept boasting that she earned far more than the crew. He added that she claimed the attendants were “only there to serve drinks and food.”

What the law says about disruptive passengers

Being drunk on an aircraft is an offense under the Air Navigation Order, which also bars abusive or insulting words and behavior toward crew. The Civil Aviation Authority has listed penalties for drunkenness of up to a £5,000 fine and two years in prison. The law does not define the word drunk. Law firm Olliers states that courts treat it as a question of fact, and prosecutors may compare a person’s conduct with how that person would behave sober.

The firm adds that UK courts can hear offenses committed on British-controlled aircraft outside the country. Assault by beating is a summary offense, and prosecutors’ charging guidance sets its maximum at six months in prison. Such cases are heard in magistrates’ courts, as this one was.

Crew members alerted police, and officers waited at Heathrow when the aircraft touched down. The arresting officer noted that she was stumbling, slurring her words and smelled of alcohol. Footage of the arrest shows her telling officers she never “touched anyone or anything.” She added that she had recorded everything on video, and when told she was under arrest, she replied that she did not think that was possible.

The Architects’ Journal stated that Virgin Atlantic takes a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive, abusive or threatening behavior onboard. Magistrates issued an arrest warrant after she skipped the trial. Separately, Selma Blair was charged with assault after a flight to New York earlier this month, and her representative attributes the conduct to a medical emergency.