Woman filmed screaming on Jet2 flight banned from airline for life and fined £5,000

24 March 2022, 15:59 | Updated: 24 March 2022, 16:41

Woman removed from Jet2 flight after tense confrontation with airline staff

A woman has been fined £5,000 and banned for life from airline carrier Jet2 after an altercation with staff was filmed and posted online.

Jet2 identified Catherine Bush, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, as the woman who was videoed aggressively confronting members of staff.

Ms Bush was captured shouting at members of staff on the flight as well as appearing to hit another passenger.

In a statement, Jet2 said the customer "displayed a catalogue of aggressive, abusive and dangerous behaviour" which included "physical aggression towards other customers and our crew."

She has been banned for life and hit with a £5,000 fine by the airline over the incident.

The video shows the woman shouting aggressively to members of staff, and was later removed from the flight from Manchester to Antalya, Turkey.

The flight was diverted to Vienna around two hours into the flight because of the aggressive actions of Ms Bush. The incident is believed to have caused a delay of around an hour for the rest of the flight.

Footage taken later shows passengers cheering as Ms Bush is led off the flight by officials.

The airline sent a text message to customers apologising for the incident, after changing course for the Austrian capital.

The clip went viral online after it was posted to social media and has been viewed over 1.6 million times on Twitter.

During the video, Ms Bush is seen shouting an air-hostess, and moves her arm toward one of the passengers. After being asked to take a step back from member of staff, Ms Bush replies: "I am back. Sort your head out you."

The staff member says: "You are not doing yourself any favours."

She replies: "Your'e not doing yourself any favours either. So what have I done? Don't touch me, don't ****ing touch me."

She adds: "What have I done? I'm not squaring up to nobody. What have I done wrong on this flight? See, you haven't got an answer."

One passenger told the Manchester Evening News: "There was lots of noise. Then she came to the front of the plane. She was really angry towards Jet2 staff and wouldn’t calm down.

"A customer said something and she slapped him in the face. Then a man got up to try and calm the situation before taking her to the back of the plane."

In a statement after the flight, Jet2 confirmed the incident online: "We can confirm that flight LS895 from Manchester to Antalya diverted to Vienna earlier today so that a disruptive passenger could be offloaded.

"As a family friendly airline, we take a zero tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour."

Jet2 have since released a statement insisting the woman will not be having another flight with the company, and has been issued with a fine.

Phil Ward, Managing Director of Jet2, said: "Ms Bush displayed a continued pattern of appalling behaviour on the flight and she must now face up to the consequences of her actions.

"We have always made it abundantly clear that, as a family friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour and that we will vigorously pursue any costs incurred as a result of such an incident.

"Although such incidents are very rare, it is unacceptable that our customers and crew should have to experience it.

"We would like to apologise to anyone who had to experience this behaviour and we would like to commend our highly-trained crew for their exceptional handling of this difficult situation."