Doherty describes drunken flight as a ‘storm in a teacup’

IRISH snooker star Ken Doherty has described media reports that he was thrown off a plane in Malta for being drunk as “absolutely ridiculous”.

Clearly irritated that the incident had cast a cloud over his first major tournament win in five years, Doherty yesterday claimed the whole controversy amounted to “a storm in a teacup”.

It was reported that the 36-year-old Dubliner had been ejected from an Air Malta aircraft on Monday for being drunk after an all-night boozing session.

Doherty and fellow snooker professional, John Higgins were asked by the pilot to leave the 7.15am flight bound for London.

Both men were due to fly out from Valetta after they had played each other in the final of the Malta Cup the previous night which Doherty won in a 9-8 frame thriller. They later caught an afternoon flight to Heathrow Airport with a different airline without further incident.

Yesterday, Doherty insisted that he had consumed just one alcoholic drink before boarding the plane. He also indicated that he would be making a formal complaint to Air Malta.

“It has been blown out of all proportion,” he said. “Myself and John were totally victimised.

“We couldn’t believe it. I had just been on TV the night before praising people for being so nice in Malta. Even the ground staff were pleading with the pilot to let us back on the plane,” he said. However, Doherty could also see the lighter side of the incident as he joked: “It has kind of ruined my goody-two-shoes image.”

Doherty said the Maltese organisers of the tournament were also disgusted at the treatment shown to them.

A decision to ask Doherty and Higgins and one of their assistants to leave the plane was taken after a passenger had complained to cabin crew staff about their behaviour.

The passenger claimed Higgins was drunk and rude to other passengers. It was reported that Doherty appeared to have only been thrown off because he objected to Higgins being asked to leave the aircraft.

Doherty, who is ranked No 4 in the world, admitted having a drink after the match to celebrate his first top-ranking championship success in five years.

An Air Malta spokesperson confirmed that three passengers had been asked to disembark from the flight following complaints from other customers about their “fitness to travel”.

“In the interests of both the offloaded passengers and all other passengers, it was decided to re-route the offloaded passengers on a later flight,” said the spokesperson.