Drunk holidaymaker, 26, admits attacking cabin crew and endangering Jet2 plane when she tried to open emergency exit in mid-air as two RAF Typhoons were scrambled to intercept
A drunk holidaymaker has admitted to endangering an aircraft and assault after she opened a plane’s emergency exit in mid-air.
Chloe Haines, 26, forced the packed plane, which was headed to Turkey, to return back to London’s Stansted Airport.
Haines of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was restrained by cabin crew and passengers on the flight, scratching one of them as they held her down.
She appeared before Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday where she pleaded guilty to endangering the safety of an aircraft and to assaulting cabin crew member Charley Coombe.
Jet2 sent her an £85,000 bill after the incident on June 22 this year, which saw two RAF jets scrambled to escort the plane back to Stansted.
Chloe Haines, 26, pictured (right) outside court in November, was charged with assault by beating and endangering an aircraft. She admitted to both charges today
Haines denied a charge of drunkenness on an aircraft.
However, Barrister Oliver Saxby, representing Haines, said there was ‘no question that she was drunk’ but that the charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft was the ‘more serious alternative’.
She was bailed to return to the court on January 24 for sentencing.
Chloe Haines, 25, pictured, has been hit with an £85,000 bill by airline Jet2 over an air rage incident on a flight from Stansted to Turkey
Haines was said to have been restrained by both crew and passengers on the flight in June
The Typhoon fighter aircraft caused sonic booms as they flew to meet the plane and escort it back to Stansted in June.
The sonic booms triggered panic in Essex, with police receiving multiple calls.
Jet2 said in a statement following the incident that Haines had been hit with both an £85,000 bill and a lifetime ban from the airline.
Speaking in July, Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: ‘As a family friendly airline, we take an absolutely zero tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour.’