A middle-aged woman flying Air India business class from Mumbai to London Heathrow was arrested upon arrival after she abused the crew who refused to serve her more wine.
The woman, whose nationality is not known but speaks with a British accent, was onboard Air India flight AI-131 from Mumbai to New York with a stopover at London Heathrow. Although the incident happened Nov. 10, a video about the incident surfaced Nov. 14, the Sun reported.
The video of the incident has gone viral in India with many praising the professional behavior of Air India staff in the face of the drunken tirade.
#WATCH An Irish national on board Air India London-Mumbai flight verbally abuses the crew after she was refused more wine. The incident took place on November 10. (Note: Strong language) pic.twitter.com/bdZWico5Qq
— ANI (@ANI) November 14, 2018
In the video, she is heard saying, “You treat business class passengers like that? I work for all you f**king people… The f***ing Rohingyas, the f***ing people of all Asia, for you, an international criminal lawyer,” the publication reported.
Flight attendants said that the woman was already drunk when she asked for another bottle of wine. After they refused to serve her more wine, she started racist tirade toward the flight crew members, while other passengers recorded the verbal spat on their phones.
The woman also claimed that she works for “the Palestinian people,” saying “I am working for all of your people”, adding she “do[esn’t] get any money for it” and asking just for a bottle of wine, Fox News reported. She also threatened the crew of boycotting the airline for not giving her “a wee bottle of wine,” the publication said.
The flight crew remained almost silent and calm during the rant and soon the woman was seen turning to other attendants who were writing a report about the incident and starts shouting “f.. Off.” She was eventually seen walking toward her cabin and the flight crew claimed that the woman could not remember, which airport, the airplane is heading to, Fox News reported.
In another video, she was also heard threatening the crew that she knows the “Irish Republican Army. You’ll be f—ing shot.”
Later, the London Metropolitan Police told the Daily Mail that the woman was taken into custody soon after the plane landed at Heathrow Airport.
“At approximately 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, 10 November, a 50-year-old woman was arrested after an Air India flight had landed at Heathrow Airport,” a spokesperson from the police department told Mail Online. “She was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order, common assault and drunk and disorderly and taken to a west London police station. She was subsequently released under investigation.”