Former Celebrity Big Brother contestant and member of boyband ‘Blue’ Lee Ryan was arrested on Sunday following an altercation with cabin crew on a short flight from Glasgow, Scotland to London City Airport after he was refused alcohol.
The 39-year-old nineties pop star was taken into custody and spent a night in the cells before being released ‘under investigation’ on Monday morning. Ryan hasn’t yet been charged with any crime and enquiries into the incident continue.
Witnesses aboard the small Embraer regional jet claim Ryan became “aggressive” with a member of the cabin crew when he found out he wasn’t going to be served any alcohol on the hour and a half flight.
Passengers claim Ryan was acting “crazy” and that his behaviour towards the cabin crew was “intimidating”.
The flight landed without incident at London City Airport but passengers were delayed from disembarking while police removed Ryan from the aircraft in handcuffs.
In a statement, a spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed its officers had met the aircraft and taken one of the passengers into custody.
“At around 1640hrs on Sunday, 31 July, officers met a flight that had arrived at London City Airport from Glasgow,” a statement from the force said. “A 39-year-old man was arrested for a public order offence. He was taken into custody at an East London police station and was released under investigation the following day.”
Ryan shot to fame in the early noughties as part of the British boyband ‘Blue’ which formed in 2000. The band split in 2004 before reforming to represent the United Kingdom in 2011’s Eurovision Song Contest.
In one of several run-ins with the law, Ryan was arrested for drunk driving in 2003. Less than a year later, Ryan was arrested for assaulting two paparazzi as he left a nightclub. He was also previously arrested on suspicion of assaulting one of his ex-partners and for refusing to provide a breath specimen after being caught driving erratically in 2014.
