A Ryanair passenger has been jailed for 14-months by a Manchester court after he was found guilty of launching into a foul mouth tirade during which he called an Italian flight attendant a “fascist” while making racist Roman salutes, repeatedly refused to wear a face mask and stroked the arm of another flight attendant who he also threatened to punch.
Passengers clapped as Daniel Hendry, 25, was removed from the plane by police at Manchester International Airport on January 29 after enduring the nearly four and a half hour flight from Tenerife during which Hendry had drunk vodka straight from a litre-sized bottle.
The court was told that Hendry’s behaviour had become so disruptive and aggressive that the Captain had considered diverting the flight over Europe but lockdown and border restrictions made that option too difficult. Instead, the pilots flew the Boeing 737 as fast as possible in order to arrive in Manchester nearly 25 minutes early.
Once on the ground, the flight attendants told police how Hendry had threatened them and disrupted the flight with fascist-style salutes.
After downing nearly three-quarters of the bottle of vodka, Hendry allegedly said to one flight attendant who told him to put on his face mask: “F**k off, I am going to punch you, I am going to smash your head in”.
An Italian flight attendant intervened and also warned Hendry to wear his face mask but he responded by calling the crew member a “fascist” and then made Roman salutes similar to what fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini popularised.
Later on in the flight, Hendry was also accused of stroking the arm of a flight attendant and then trying to hug her.
During his arrest, Hendry banged his head on the floor and allegedly spat in the back of a police van that was used to transport him to a local police station. After being sentenced to 14-months imprisonment, the court learned that Hendry had a string of previous convictions for public order offences.
While waiting for trial, Hendry met with a probation officer who asked him about the incident. Hendry described the flight attendant as a “f**king clown” and told his probation officer: “He would have been really hurt had I cut him in the face. I’m sick of being asked questions about that day. If you believe him you are the problem.”
The incident occurred on the same day that a second Ryanair passenger was hauled off a plane at Manchester Airport after refusing to wear a face mask on a flight from Krakow in Poland. Adrian Front was arrested after, again, getting drunk of Duty-Free liquor before telling a flight attendant to “f**k off”.
Front is due to sentenced later this month.
Photo Credit: Kevin Hackert via Unsplash
