Cork man on stag do flight to Las Vegas fined for abusing crew in toilet row

A Cork man travelling to a stag do in Las Vegas has been fined after admitting to verbally abusing staff while “clearly drunk” on a flight after being told not to use the toilet.

Emmet Moynihan, 31, with an address on South Douglas Road, “smelled of alcohol” when he boarded a British Airways flight from Heathrow to the US city on August 6.

After being told the flight was delayed, the Co Cork man tried to use the toilet and called it a “fucking joke” and “verbally abused staff” when he was asked to sit down, the court heard.

Mr Moynihan flew in from Cork, for his appearance at Uxbridge Magistrates Court on Wednesday wearing a grey Levi’s hoodie.

He was fined £2,224 (€2,600) after pleading guilty to entering an aircraft when drunk and failing to obey the lawful commands of a pilot.

Videos of the incident were circulated online and accrued more than six million views, Mr Moynihan’s lawyer Paul Turnbull said.

Prosecutor Abigail Day told the court “a passenger had also noticed that he smelled of alcohol and was clearly drunk” during the altercation with the flight crew.

Ms Day said: “Passengers then began filming him with their telephone and he was lunging towards passengers’ phones saying ‘stop fucking recording me’.” 

 She said the co-pilot eventually got involved in trying to get Mr Moynihan to sit down.

Mr Turnbull said his client had “got past everyone” in his intoxicated state, and was only up and about from his seat because “he wanted to use the toilet”.

He said: “The defendant was part of a group going to Las Vegas for a stag, there was an element of consumption in Cork and they had access to a lounge at Heathrow.” 

Mr Moynihan admitted both counts and was ordered to pay a £2,224 (€2,600) fine, an £890 (€1,040) surcharge and £85 (€100) in costs.

In sentencing, Magistrate Sandra Joseph said: “There is only one reason we were not going to send it to the crown court, and that is that the plane was still on the ground and therefore passengers could have been evacuated.

“However, had they been in the air this would be a completely different matter.”