Champagne-inspired rage on flight to Zurich results in €5,000 fine

A 44-year-old woman who threw a tantrum on a plane after she was refused a glass of Champagne has been fined €5,000.

A pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at Stuttgart airport on Saturday so security officers could remove a difficult passenger from the plane. The passenger, a 44-year-old-woman travelling in business class, reportedly ‘threw a fit’ and became aggressive towards staff because they refused to bring her another glass of Champagne.

The flight from Moscow to Zurich was forced to land when the woman, whose name has not been released, became unmanageable after flight attendants refused to give her any more of the fizzy beverage. Witnesses say she had already had a few.

Not only did the woman miss out on Zurich, but after she was ejected from the plane she had to pay a €5,000 fine for the disruption. The aircraft and passengers were in no immediate danger, but the unplanned landing is likely to have cost the airline way over €10,000.

This follows on from reports in August that revealed arrests for drunk and disorderly behaviours have risen by 50% in the last year. Arrests rose from 255 in 2015/16 to 387 in 2016/17.

Adult tantrums on flights seem to be at an all-time high this month. A woman was arrested and charged at Sacramento airport on Saturday after threatening to ‘kill everyone’ on the 2943 flight from Portland to Sacramento because she was asked to refrain from smoking in the toilets and tampering with the smoke alarms.

A man achieved online notoriety on November the 29 when he threw a temper tantrum over a 250 baht (about £5) meal voucher, although to be fair to him his flight was delayed for 24 and the meal voucher couldn’t even get him a bowl of noodles.

In October, it was reported that a man from Quebec had filed a lawsuit against Canada’s Sunwing Airlines after he was served sparkling wine instead of Champagne as part of a flight package that promised “Champagne service”.