Airline cabin crew felt ‘held to ransom’ by man, court hears

AN Aer Lingus pilot considered diverting a flight when a retired financial service executive started complaining about seating and made a member of the cabin crew feel “held to ransom”, a court heard.

Leo Larkin, aged 61, of Killteragh Road, Foxrock, Dublin, was fined €500 after he admitted engaging in behaviour likely to cause serious offence or annoyance on the aircraft after being requested by a crew member to stop, on April 3 last year. The state withdrew a summons for engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour with intent to cause a breach of the peace during the flight.

Garda Siobhán Murphy told Judge Bryan Smyth at Dublin District Court yesterday that she took a report from staff member Emer O’Shea following a four-hour flight carrying 200 passengers from Las Palmas to Dublin.

“It arose from him not getting his allocated seats on the plane,” the garda said.

It was alleged Larkin acted in an “intimidating manner” and was asked to sit down several times.

Garda Murphy said Larkin caused a disturbance to crew and passengers. “So much so that the pilot contemplated diverting the flight.”

The first disturbance lasted an hour and “the crew were not able to perform adequately”.

He was warned and sat down but later “he went to the front of the plane and there was another disturbance which lasted an hour”.

The garda said the stewardess felt bullied, intimidated and “held to ransom” in the galley area of the plane.

John Nolan, defending, said his client admitted causing annoyance and offence on the plane but denied the evidence of the crew being intimidated or bullied.

Larkin, a retired financial services worker, had been travelling with his wife, who had a serious back condition. For her comfort he paid €60 extra to book seats near the exit. The seats were not allocated to them when they boarded and counsel said this had also happened in the past.

Larkin felt his complaints had not been taken seriously, but he had since tendered an apology to the staff.

Mr Nolan said his client had no previous convictions and the incident was “out of character.”

His client suffered from hypertension and after the incident he refused to accept a caution from the garda, which was no longer available when he later calmed down.

Aer Lingus has told Larkin that he is no longer allowed on its flights, Judge Smyth heard.

The judge said the incident was serious and affected a number of people, adding that he did not doubt Larkin had genuine grievances.

“It is like anything in life, it is the way you deal with it,” he said, as he imposed the fine which must be paid within one month with five days in jail in default.