A drunken airline passenger who confronted and abused other customers, and even kicked the seat of a child, has been jailed.
Kiran Jagdev, of Leicester, displayed a continued pattern of unacceptable behaviour on a flight from Tenerife to East Midlands in January.
Despite the intervention of an off-duty police officer, crew on the Jet2 aircraft were left with no choice other than to call for police assistance upon arrival.
The 41-year-old had previously blamed the flight crew for selling her more alcohol.
Jagdev was sentenced to six months in prison when she appeared at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday. She had pleaded guilty to being drunk on an aircraft at an earlier hearing at Leicester Magistrates Court in August
Judge Philip Head said: “This demands a deterrent sentence so people who travel by air and get drunk will know there are consequences.”
She was banned for life for flying with Jet2 following the outcome of the court case.
Prosecutor Joey Kwong told the crown court how Jagdev had drank between six and eight beers before boarding the flight on January 28.
She then drank a further four to six glasses of wine while on board.
During the flight she repeatedly kicked the back of the seat in front of her where an autistic girl was sitting with her family.
She became extremely distressed and was offered another seat by cabin crew.
Jagdev was then seated behind another passenger, and despite being asked to stop kicking, continued to do so.
After being refused more alcohol by cabin crew, Jagdev then brought her own alcohol out of her bag and began to drink that, the court heard
Defending, Harbinder Lally, said: “There is no excuse or justification whatsoever and it is not at all understandable.
“She was intoxicated before she got on the plane itself and the only person the finger of blame can be pointed at is Ms Jagdev herself.
“She accepts that now and knows there is no excuse of justification for it.
“She simply wants to get back on track and wants to get professional assistance and she is working to do that.”
Jet2 managing director Phil Ward said afterwards: “It is very clear that drinking to excess, including the illicit consumption of duty free alcohol on the aircraft, contributed significantly to this behaviour.
“This is why, as a family-friendly airline flying millions of people on holiday every year, Jet2 is calling for measures to better control the sale and consumption of alcohol purchased at airports.
“I would like to pay tribute to both our crew and the police for the way they handled this incident.
“I can assure customers that as a family-friendly airline we will not under any circumstances tolerate this behaviour, and Ms Jagdev has been banned from flying with Jet2 for life.”