Drunken grandmother ordered to pay Qantas £11k for flight disruption

PA

A drunken granny who caused a New Zealand-bound flight to turn back to Melbourne after a violent drunken outburst has been ordered to pay Qantas $18,245 (£11,500) for the flight disruption costs.

Frances Macaskill, 58, attacked a man on Jetconnect's QF37 flight on Saturday morning, and cabin crew had to restrain her before the plane turned back to Melbourne - an hour into the flight.

The grandmother was "heavily intoxicated" when she punched a male passenger in the face causing heavy bleeding and a 6cm injury.

Ms Macaskill, who was travelling to see her children in Wellington, was handcuffed and restrained across the shoulders, but continued to headbutt the seat in front of her.

She pleaded guilty to assaulting the passenger and behaving in a disorderly manner on the flight.

According to news.com.au, magistrate Luisa Bazzani said: "Those passengers affected by your appalling behaviour were unable to remove themselves from the situation.

"That the plane had to be re-routed and returned to Melbourne because of your behaviour is in itself illustrative of the level of disruption that you caused.

"The assault by you of a fellow passenger without any provocation is particularly concerning."

As well as having to pay Qantas' cost of returning the flight to Melbourne, Ms Macaskill was fined $3,500 (£2,200) for the assault, and given a four-month jail term, wholly suspended over two years.

Macaskill has also been banned from flying with Qantas for at least 10 years.

A Qantas spokesman told The Australian the ban applied to any Qantas group aircraft, which included Jetstar and New Zealand-based subsidiary JetConnect.

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