Oh my, how low we have sunk…
Chris Hemmings tries hard to excuse the inexcusable.
Okay, they were acting like a set of complete arseholes – egged on, I’ve no doubt, by their innate goal to be the lad of all of lads on their epic lad quest. When the cabin crew couldn’t restore order, and the pilot decided an emergency landing in Berlin was in order, it’s all these lads could do but to celebrate, and decide Berlin was probably good for a piss-up anyway.
What they probably didn’t expect was a civil suit being sought by the airline, and a possible £20,000 fine each.
Not laughing now, eh?
Well, no and well deserved. I’m with Ryanair all the way on this one. They will have incurred landing fees, increased fuel expense and they have inconvenienced the rest of their passengers, so seeking redress from the scum who couldn’t control themselves seems perfectly fair, yes?
In these scenarios it’s all too easy for us to blame these men (because that’s what they are) for being ill-disciplined, inconsiderate oiks. “Fine them!” we all cry, obstinately demanding that they are the lowest of the low and should be banned from flying for life.
Yes, absolutely for it is entirely their fault and their fault alone. No one else was to blame… No?
Well, no, it would seem…
Instead of that, let’s track their journey through the airport.
They arrive, let’s say at 7am ahead of their 9am flight. Having passed through customs they’re met with wall-to-wall booze, cigarettes and aftershave – all the hallmarks of a true lad.
In the duty-free hall is a bar, offering free samples of rums, vodka, whisky… the list goes on. They could have headed towards the lounge having already had a fair few shots. But oh, look! The airport bar is open. No other bar in the land is allowed to open at this time, but at the airport for some reason that’s OK.
Heading to the plane you want more and, of course, the airlines oblige. No sooner has the ‘fasten seat belt sign’ been switched off, the little box of joy comes tearing down the aisle.
Inside? Litres of spirits at low, low prices along with beers and wines, all for immediate consumption. Even the aftershaves have alcohol in, if you’re desperate.
Ah, so it is the fault of all those nasty retailers forcing them to consume so much alcohol that they were unable to control themselves, for we no longer have any sense of personal responsibility or restraint – we are children who cannot resist and, therefore, are not responsible for our actions.
The very act of stepping on a plane has become synonymous with alcohol. As has so much else within our society.
No it isn’t, you fuckwit. it is synonymous with flying. Very few people I see when flying are drinking alcohol, let alone getting tanked up and stripping naked halfway through the flight. Pillock!
It’s too easy to blame these lads, but they know what they do. They’re just a set of pissed-up morons chasing their laddish dreams. Of course they’re responsible for their actions…
Yes. Entirely so.
…but so are the airports, the airlines and the alcohol industry pouring booze down their necks at any given opportunity.
No. They. Are. Not. The decision to drink to excess lies with the person doing it and no one else. The only party doing the pouring is the owner of the neck in question. Cretinous fuckwit.
As microcosm of what is wrong with the world, a peek inside the moronic idiocy of Hemmings’ mindset is revealing… Cretin.
Fine them and then fine them again.
Isn’t this another facet of the corporate responsibility act or whatever it’s called, whereby companies are held responsible for their employees’ elfin safety (or at least it’s been interpreted this way) so if they get hammered and break a leg or the table they’re dancing on, the company is liable?
(And it happens in my own World of Work where we seem obliged to mollycoddle/harass customers in case something happens and they sue – personal responsibility doesn’t seem to figure).
You’re thinking of vicarious liability.
Chris Hemmings seems to be doing a bit on the side. He graduated in 2013 as a radio journalist.
http://www.nationalbroadcastingschool.com/2013/07/bbcs-chris-hemmings-explains-how-useful-the-nbs-course-was-to-him/
He’s also a fuckwit.
The plane left from Southampton and was going to Slovakia. Both are in the EU, so there is no duty-free. Also the bar facilities in Southampton are full UK airport tariff, so eye-wateringly expensive.
Ryanair provides booze on board at UK prices.
http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/comparing-on-board-menus-sas-vs-ryanair.html
So our Hemmings wallah has no just cause to make up some excuse about cheap booze and fags and such being chucked at the poor wee helpless didums.
And showing your displeasure by taking out your pecker and waggling it about in a packed solid Ryanair is beyond gross. There is no place to hide from the sight, smell and even after-widdle. In short, BIG YUCK.
So here we have a pretty pathetic 20 something trying to defend a couple of lashed up morons.
Ryanair can prosecute the hell out of the pair of them – and my sympathy goes 100% to the people who had to witness a couple of lashed up chavs, who – lets face it – were only on the flight because they paid 40 pence for their ticket.
There’s no such thing as a flight for fifty pee…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6pj3Fdbwng
Fascinating…..
While I’m in full agreement with you, I’d suggest that if you’re too tight to fly on a proper airline, close contact with smelly, vulgar, I’ll-mannered, drunk chavs is a likely consequence.
I disagree. What you should expect is a no-frills service. They are proper airlines, they just don’t waste money on unnecessary crap.There is never,under any circumstances whatsoever any situation where this behaviour can be excused – even slightly, nor should anyone expect to have to tolerate it, no matter how little they have paid for their fare.
Couple of years back, I went to Cape Verde on Thomson Airways. On board were half a dozen couples travelling together and getting pissed out of their minds. They obviously had mates in the cabin crew who were bunging them free drinks. When the champagne ran out it was only because the crew were keeping a bottle aside for themselves.
Not sure who were worse the crew or the mob. I asked them politely to turn it down and was told by the cabin steward to ‘Fuck off or I’ll have you banned from the return flight!”
Such professionallism !
I think there’s a market here for airlines to have their aircraft retrofitted with some form of ejection seat for rowdy and disruptive passengers. In the case of Ryanair of course, passengers would be expected to provide their own parachutes.
Parachutes not necessary. Call it cleansing of the gene pool.
I’d be with Ryanair too. If not for the fact that they let them on the plane when clearly drunk. If a bartender has to refuse to serve someone obviously drunk (and can have his licence removed for doing so), why not an airline?
Possibly. We don’t know how apparent it was before they boarded. Even so, I remain firmly with Ryanair and expect them to take these scumbags to the cleaners.
Funny how I’ve been on lads holidays and never managed to get stupidly pissed up on a plane.
When idiots have no self control there are consequences and rightly so
With pretty much all of what you’ve written I’d agree with every word. Except seven words actually.
“Fine them and then fine them again.”
You cannot do that – See 1689 Bill of Rights. Punish them by all means, but what you cannot do is to make the punishment(s) excessive, unusual or cruel.
Would you be so quick to impose such a fine should you be driving over the speed limit?
You cannot tell me that you live (or have lived) a life without breaking ANY law whatsoever. Would you be happy to be hammered so unfairly for even a minor misdemenour?
Keep it proportionate. £1500.00 fine and barred from flying for 18 months on ANY carrier.
This way you cover both options, even if they have the money (£20,000), they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. If they have to scrabble around to get the $1500 then they have enough time to save up for their next (better behaved) trip
With pretty much all of what you’ve written I’d agree with every word. Except seven words actually.
“Fine them and then fine them again.”
You cannot do that – See 1689 Bill of Rights. Punish them by all means, but what you cannot do is to make the punishment(s) excessive, unusual or cruel.
Would you be so quick to impose such a fine should you be driving over the speed limit?
You cannot tell me that you live (or have lived) a life without breaking ANY law whatsoever. Would you be happy to be hammered so unfairly for even a minor misdemenour?
Keep it proportionate. £1500.00 fine and barred from flying for 18 months on ANY carrier.
This way you cover both options, even if they have the money (£20,000), they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. If they have to scrabble around to get the $1500 then they have enough time to save up for their next (better behaved) trip
The idiots’ actions will have cost Ryanair rather more than £1500, hence the £20K fines. The landing fees and related costs — refuelling, cleaning up the mess, etc. — will likely be more than they’ll get from these oiks.
Oh, dear. I had rather assumed that readers would have noted the obvious hyperbole and not taken it too seriously.
Obviously not…
“…we are children who cannot resist and, therefore, are not responsible for our actions.”
Sounds an awful lot like a certain religion I could mention.