Plane drunk escapes prison

Jay Woolsey, of Brownstown Park, who appeared at Antrim Magistrate’s Court, was sentenced to five years, suspended for three months.

District Judge Alan White told the 25-year-old it was a “good thing that you were drunk” because that meant his fellow passengers knew the claims about Isis were “a nonsense”.

Judge White added, however, that his behaviour would have caused stress to anyone on the flight.

Earlier the judge heard that Woolsey had been removed from a Bristol-bound flight after he strode up and down the aisle shouting that ISIS were going to blow the plane up.

A prosecuting lawyer said that as he was being escorted from the plane, Woolsey pushed a man who had come to help cabin crew in the chest, causing him to fall down some stairs and once inside Belfast International, he spat at a female member of airport staff.

Police attended the airport check-in after Woolsey was reported as being “angry and agitated” and when officers found the defendant outside the airport at the taxi rank, he shouted, “The police are here over the Isis bombing”.

During an earlier court appearance Woolsey pleaded guilty to common assault against the man and failing to obey the lawful command of an aircraft commander.

He also confessed to using disorderly behaviour at Belfast International Airport, one count of common assault on a woman, being drunk on a plane and behaving in a disorderly manner towards a member of the crew, all of which occurred on November 27 last year.

Woolsey’s defence solicitor conceded it had been an “horrendous incident”, adding that the defendant had “underlying difficulties that came to a head in spectacular fashion.”

Judge White also imposed a £400 fine and ordered Woolsey to pay compensation of £100 each to the member of staff he spat at and the man he pushed in the chest.