Police stormed a packed Wizz Air jet mid-flight from Britain to Egypt, dragging off an unruly female passenger who had been drinking for most of the journey. Eyewitnesses watched in shock as authorities boarded the plane and removed the woman, whose family was traveling with her, after her behavior spiraled out of control.
The incident has reignited a fiery debate over alcohol at airports — and whether a two-drink limit could ever work. Sir Tim Martin, the outspoken boss of Wetherspoon, fired back at the idea, calling it "extraordinarily difficult to implement" without breathalysing every passenger before boarding.
"It has never been suggested that our customers cause disruption on flights," Martin declared, insisting that airport pubs are already "highly supervised" with strict anti-binge-drinking policies. He warned that a blanket drink cap would be a massive overreaction, especially since many problems start on incoming flights from other countries.
But the chaos doesn't stop there. Just months earlier, a Ryanair flight from Kraków to Bristol descended into pure mayhem when an intoxicated man refused to sit down. Passengers filmed as he hurled curses at stewards and fought security, forcing the pilot to circle the airport before finally landing — with police waiting on the tarmac.
Under UK law, being drunk on a plane is a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in prison and a £5,000 fine. And authorities are getting tougher. A French court hit two passengers with a combined penalty of over €10,000 and suspended prison sentences of up to ten months after their antics forced a Stansted-to-Ibiza flight to divert to Toulouse last May.
Ryanair isn't stopping at fines. In January, the airline filed legal proceedings in Ireland demanding €15,000 in damages from a single passenger whose drunken behavior forced a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote to divert. The message is clear: cause trouble at 35,000 feet, and you'll pay — not just in dignity, but in cash and jail time.
