High and mighty: some air rage incidents

Flying brings out the worst in the rich and famous. As Jonathan Rhys Meyers is charged with being drunk at Dublin airport, Amol Rajan fastens his seatbelt and recalls the celebrities who made themselves the in-flight entertainment

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

The 30-year-old Irishman appears to be struggling to leave behind his heavy drinking, loud-mouthed persona as the young Henry VIII in the BBC serial The Tudors. Following an appearance on an Irish talk-show at the weekend to promote his new film, August Rush, Rhys Meyers staggered into Dublin Airport, apparently having had a few too many post-broadcast tipples. After being less than polite to check-in staff, he was barred from boarding a London-bound BMI flight.

Rhys Meyers, who spent four weeks at a drying-out clinic in California earlier this year, then refused requests from airport security to calm down. They eventually called the police, who charged the actor with being drunk in public and breaching the peace. He is due in court on 5 December.

Snoop Dogg

Rap stars never travel light – or alone. When Snoop Dogg, aka Cordozar Calvin Broadus – probably one of the most celebrated American rappers and record producers of his generation – headed for South Africa from Heathrow in April of last year, he brought along 30 of his home boys. They, in turn, brought along their attitudes.

Refused entry into the first-class lounge because of their loutishness, the posse took out their rage out on staff at a duty- free shop, allegedly hurling bottles of whisky across the shop floor. But when they were told that unless they grew up they would not be allowed to board their plane, the rapper's minders blew their casket. Police were called to Terminal One to deal with the problem. They demanded that Snoop and his crew calm down. They didn't. Instead, they went "berserk". One of the rapper's home boys left a policeman with a fractured wrist, while several others had cuts or bruises.

Snoop and five of his men were arrested on charges of violent disorder and affray and spent the night behind bars.

Courtney Love

In February 2003, Love – the troubled widow of the Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain – was feeling a little restless on board a Virgin Airlines flight from Los Angeles to London. Seated next to two personal assistants and a nurse, she asked if her second nurse, who was sitting in economy class, could join her in business class. Alas, with the plane about to descend towards Heathrow, the former lead singer of the US rock group Hole had chosen a bad time to change her seating arrangements. When the cabin crew told her that the nurse could not join her, Love went "berserk", becoming verbally abusive and screaming and swearing at staff and passengers. Once the plane landed it was boarded by police, who spoke to the rocker for 20 minutes before bundling her into a van and interrogating her for a further 11 hours.

Liam Gallagher

Perhaps if they had been flying to Australia from the UK – a journey which can take up to 26 hours – you might excuse those bad boys from rock band, Oasis for being a bit fidgety. But in 1998, ahead of their tour of Australia, the band's members and their two dozen tag-alongs were making the much shorter journey from Hong Kong to Perth, on Australia's West Coast.

Apparently drunk before they got on board, lead singer Liam Gallagher defied the no-smoking policy on board the plane, and was promptly asked to stub out his cigarette. The Mancunian responded by throwing a hissy fit, thundering "obscene, offensive, and horribly abusive" language at other passengers.

While his brother Noel apparently slept, Gallagher began throwing food at those sat around him, encouraged by other band members, who promptly began raucous sing-alongs. The plane's captain threatened to conduct an emergency landing unless the group quietened down.

Eventually Gallagher led the stumbling entourage off the plane at Perth. Asked what he recalled of the event, he said: "Some panhead told me to shut up – some panhead who needs stabbing through the head with a fucking pick-axe."

Following the flight, Cathay Pacific issued the Gallagher brothers and the rest of Oasis with a lifelong ban.

Lorna Dow

On her way to a modelling assignment in New York in 1998, Dow decided to ease the boredom of her eight-hour flight from Manchester by drinking a cocktail of champagne and cannabis tea.

An air hostess found the model in a queue for a lavatory demanding a bucket to be sick in and threatening to urinate in the aisle. When the stewardess took her to another WC, only to find that was engaged too, Dow turned nasty. Saying, "I am going to sort you out", she tugged the hair of one cabin crew member, punched another and dragged a third down the aisle. She then challenged the whole crew to a fight. Dow, pleaded guilty to common assault and occasioning actual bodily harm and was given a three-month prison sentence.

Peter Buck

On a BA flight from Seattle to Heathrow in April 2001, the R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck allegedly ordered 15 glasses of red wine during the first three hours of the 10-hour journey, then staggered up to the galley to demand more. Buck emerged from a toilet to be confronted with a written warning from the flight captain. He responded by abusing staff and passengers, upending a trolley and covering an air hostess in yoghurt. The 6ft 2in musician ripped the warning from the captain's hands, tore it up and boasted: "You are just a captain and I am R.E.M."

In court, Buck claimed a sleeping pill he took before the flight, combined with "small amounts" of wine, had converted him into a "non-insane automatism". He said he had a total blackout until he woke up in a police cell, and was not therefore accountable for his actions. The jury agreed.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

In April 1982, gallery owner Larry Gagosian paid for American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, a notorious party animal, to fly first class from New York to Los Angeles for an exhibition. Gagosian picks up the story: "It was like these four kind of rough-looking black kids hunched over a big pile of coke and then they just switched over to these huge joints. They had their big ski-glasses on, and big overcoats. The stewardess freaked. I thought 'Oh God, we're going to jail'". But when the stewardess protested that such behaviour was, actually illegal, Basquiat's retort was as polite as it was firm. "I thought this was first class ..." he said. Basquiat died of a drug overdose six years later.


Vinnie Jones

The former footballer turned Hollywood actor was sentenced to 80 hours' community service and fined £1,100 in 2003 for an act of mid-air aggression which, even by his standards, takes some beating.

On a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to Tokyo, the one-time Wimbledon captain found himself in a first-class cabin, next to a man named Stephen Driscoll. After exchanging some mild pleasantries with one another, Driscoll told Jones he was being "annoying". Jones, drinking "boorishly", waltzed up to a lady whom he thought might enjoy his company. When his fellow passengers and the cabin crew told him that she might not, he reacted furiously. Screaming loudly, "I can get you murdered. I can get whole crew murdered for £3,000". At one point, he allegedly slapped another passenger 10 times.

Ian Brown

Poor Christine Cooper. She was working on a BA flight from Paris to Manchester in 1998. Thinking one of the passengers was interested in duty free, she showed him what was on offer. Alas, former the Stone Roses singer Ian Brown was far from interested. When Cooper held up her hands to apologise, Brown misinterpreted the gesture.

"Hey you", he said to Cooper. "Don't you wave your fucking hands at me. I'll chop your fucking hands off." When the captain intervened, Brown repeated his threat. The singer then banged on the locked cockpit door demanding entry.

In court, Brown said his threats were in fact jokes. But for his abusive behaviour, and for potentially threatening the lives of other passengers, he was jailed for four months.

Grace Jones

Almost a quarter of a century after thumping the late television presenter Russell Harty after he turned his back to her in an interview, the Jamaican singer and former Vogue model's aggressive streak re-emerged in April 2005 when reports suggested that she was thrown off a Eurostar train from Paris to London for arguing with and verbally abusing a ticket inspector. She denied the claims.

Just two months later, Jones allegedly threw a tantrum when leaving her flight from New Jersey to London. After all passengers had left the Virgin aircraft, Jones demanded that she be escorted from the flight to the VIP lounge, rather than get on board a bus with all the commoners from economy class.

Jones was repeatedly told that the VIP lounge was only for departures and thus unavailable. But she would have none of it, screaming abuse at cabin crew. Eventually Heathrow chiefs escorted her to the VIP area – but not before armed police officers had rushed to the scene, and threatened her with arrest.

source: Independent, London

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