Heavily Drunk British Passenger Assaults Ryanair Stewardess

May 8, 2007
When the stewardess approached a passenger, who had been drinking, the passenger punched her several times in the face and stomach.

A drunk British national assaulted a stewardess on a Ryanair flight from London to Riga and continued violent behaviour in the Riga airport where the hooligan was fined by the police, according to Latvian daily Neatkariga.

Police detained two British nationals, aged 29 and 25, who arrived to Riga from London for causing disturbances in the Riga airport. The medical tests showed more than three per mille of alcohol their bodies.

The daily reports that one of the detained, being heavily drunk had caused disturbances already in the passenger area of the aircraft and when the stewardess came to ask what was wrong, he punched her several times in the face and stomach.

Inita Dzelme, the spokeswoman for Riga county police department confirmed that the police had received information from the airport about the problems on Ryanair flight. The police detained the British nationals, drafted an administrative offence protocol for petty hooliganism and fined them.

"The plane that carried both British nationals does not belong to Latvia, that is why what happened in the plane does not concern us, it is not Latvian jurisdiction. That is why we did not try to find out what exactly happened in the plane," said Dzelme. After the detention both men were released and the police does not possess any information about their further adventures.

There is no official data on the incident at the disposal of the airport, but the airline Ryanair canceled its flight to Glasgow in the evening, which involved the same plane and crew, that fought drunk British tourists.

The daily was unable to contact Ryanair representatives on Monday evening.

The daily reminds that the behaviour of British tourists is especially "magnificent".

In the evening of March 16, the police detained a 29-year old British national who was urinating in a square by the Freedom Monument. In November last year a 30-year old British citizen was similarly detained for peeing on the Freedom Monument.

Several tourists have tried to climb the monument. The last incident involved an international group of two Norwegian nationals and one Polish national. The climbers were not sober.

The British Embassy in Riga following the performance of the British tourists has launched an information campaign Responsible Tourism urging British citizens to rest wisely and observe the law. The embassy recommends to use beer glass pads with educatory advice written on them in Old Riga bars. The information glass pads, though, have not been seen in the bars frequented by westerners yet.

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