Another day, another report of an idiot doing what some idiots do on aircraft.
The latest involves an Emirates A380 business-class passenger who allegedly took liberal advantage of the free booze on a flight from Manchester to Dubai, then stripped off to the waist and started smoking a cigarette — all while the plane was landing.
According to the Manchester Evening News, the passenger said he’d forgotten he was on a plane and would “have a chat with the captain to apologise”.
Another passenger told the paper: “This guy was a drunken buffoon. Everybody was disgusted.”
From reports, the crew of the Emirates plane did everything they could to contain the situation, which might have been much worse. I applaud them for their action; they really have a tough job when circumstances like this arise.
Tourists behaving badly Air-rage incidents
Inevitably, some people blamed the alcohol he’d been drinking. But bad behaviour is, except in cases of psychological illness, a choice — and it’s one that a lot of people seem to be making.
In the air, in school, in the office, on the street, sober or drunk, some people feel entitled to do what they want to do with no thought of others.
If the allegations against this person — who was met by security officials when the plane landed — are true, then I hope the punishment is tough enough to stand as a deterrent to him and others who might think it fun to have a bit of a lark 40,000 feet up in the air.
And I hope that rather than celebrate misconduct like this — as some media have in the past — that more people make it clear what’s acceptable and what is not.
Update: It certainly doesn’t help tackle binge-drinking culture when the pilot congratulates passengers for drinking the plane dry.
