A DRUNK passenger screamed “I’m an architect & you’re just a f***ing air hostess” when asked not to disturb a sleeping baby.
Simone de Gale, 44, launched into the foul-mouthed rant on the Virgin flight from Dubai to Heathrow on 5 February this year.
She had been politely asked not to walk through an aisle where passengers, including a family with a nine-month-old baby, were sleeping when she flew into a rage.
De Gale verbally abused flight attendants, jabbed victim Sarah Jane Buckland near the collarbone and grabbed her cardigan.
She also repeatedly called cabin crew racist and told one attendant: “You’re a f***ing dumb air hostess. You need to learn your place.”
After the flight landed, officers attached to Heathrow Airport’s aviation policing team noticed the architect’s speech was slurred and her breath smelt strongly of alcohol.
She also stumbled when leaving the aircraft.
Prosecutor Sinan Ors told the court de Gale became verbally abusive and threatening towards members of the cabin crew.
She screamed at Ms Buckland: “You’re a f***ing dumb air hostess. You need to learn your place”.
De Gale also accused the cabin crew worker of being “racist” and was described as “really aggressive”.
She continued insisting she was an architect and telling the attendants they needed to “learn your place”, the court heard.
Ms Buckland described how she and other crew members tried to defuse the confrontation.
“We were all trying to defuse this lady”, she said.
Although she was not physically injured, the attendant said she had been badly shaken.
Fellow passenger Graham Cox told the court de Gale had boasted about earning more money than the cabin crew and owning her own architecture business.
He said she repeatedly accused the flight attendants of racism and claimed stewardesses were “only there to serve drinks and food”.
Asked what she had said about her profession, Mr Cox replied: “She said she earns significantly more money than they did.
“She’s an architect that owns her own business.”
He described her behaviour as “very loud, boisterous, aggressive”.
De Gale was today convicted of four charges including behaving in a threatening, abusive, insulting or disorderly manner towards a member of crew, being drunk in an aircraft and assaulting Ms Buckland by beating.
She failed to attend Ealing Magistrates’ Court and was found guilty in her absence of all four charges – with a warrant put out for her arrest.
