Ryanair passenger, 39, is spared jail after blaming her ‘fear of flying’ on drunken row with air crew that ended with her being escorted off flight and ‘stumbling’ into waiting police van
- Lyndsey Fitzsimmons swore and argued with people on her flight from Lanzarote
- The Ryanair pilot was forced to call the police before it landed in Manchester
- She ‘stumbled’ into a police van after being escorted off by six police officers
- The mother-of-one wept in court today as she was given a suspended sentence
A Ryanair passenger has been spared jail after blaming her ‘fear of flying’ on her drunken row with air crew that ended with her being escorted off her flight by police.
Lyndsey Fitzsimmons was so drunk she ‘stumbled’ into a police van after swearing and arguing with other people on her flight from Lanzarote from Manchester in February.
Her behaviour was so bad that the pilot was forced to contact the police 17 minutes before the plane was due to land at 10.10pm, and she had to be moved to the back of the aircraft by flight attendants.
On touching down, a group of six police officers escorted the 39-year-old mother-of-one away from the plane.
Today she wept as she walked free after being given a suspended sentence at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, having previously pleaded guilty to being drunk in an aircraft.
Lyndsey Fitzsimmons (pictured) claimed her of flying was to blame for her drunken row on a Ryanair flight from Lanzarote
The mother-of-one (pictured here arriving at court today) wept as she was given a suspended prison sentence
Mr Brian Berlyne, prosecuting, told the court Fitzsimmons accepted drinking two pints of lager before boarding the plane and taking two diazepam tablets.
He said she suffered from anxiety and had a ‘fear of flying’ but there was no evidence of the ‘precise amount’ of alcohol she had consumed.
‘She may have underestimated the effect of the alcohol that was consumed,’ he said.
‘Passengers in front of her had complained of her loud volume that she was speaking.
‘There was an irate response, resulting in the crew becoming involved.’
He said the police officers had smelled alcohol on her breath and her speech was ‘slurred and loud’.
When passengers told her to leave the plane, he said, she responded with ‘verbal abuse’.
Police were eventually able to lead her off the aircraft, but she ‘stumbled’ before getting in the back of their van.
Fitzsimmons, from Frodsham, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to a charge of being drunk in an aircraft at a previous hearing in May.
CCTV played to the court showed her arguing with officers and telling them: ‘I didn’t do nothing wrong.’
Six police officers escorted the 39-year-old off her Ryanair flight (file photo) from Lanzarote to Manchester after the row in February this year
Fitzsimmons sobbed as the footage was played and Paul Wood, defending, said six officers had only been called to the plane because it had been graded a ‘Level 1’ one incident.
They believed it was the most serious type, he said, but it was the least serious and only concerned ‘verbal aggression’.
Mr Wood said Fitzsimmons suffered from severe anxiety, depression and a fear of flying and it wasn’t a case where she had ‘deliberately consumed’ alcohol from duty free in order to get drunk.
‘The level of risk was low, in my opinion, and it was set against the background of her mental health issues,’ he said.
Fitzsimmons (pictured) ‘stumbled’ into a waiting police van after the pilot called officers for help due to her behaviour
He added that Fitzsimmons was a person of ‘positive good character’ who cared for her autistic son and he struggled at school.
The judge Recorder Paul Reid QC said the courts treated cases of drunkenness on board aircraft ‘very seriously’ and he’d considered whether to impose an immediate custodial sentence.
Instead, and ‘on balance’, he handed Fitzsimmons a three month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
‘Your behaviour was at the bottom end of drunkenness and there was no question of you being physically aggressive or being physically restrained,’ he said.
He added that she was a person of good character and was ‘very remorseful’ and he’d taken into her account her mental health issues and being a carer for her son.
Fitzsimmons cried as she walked free from the dock.
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