A Manchester Crown Court sentenced a woman to six months in jail this week for assaulting an Etihad Airways' flight attendant and passengers, BBC reported.
The May 9 drunken brawl saw defendant Demi Burton punch, bite, and head-butt cabin crew and passengers after a member of staff refused her request for more alcohol. The 20-year-old was on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Manchester when she launched the assault and had to be restrained by six crew members and passengers on the flight right up until it landed.
Burton - who was flying home from a three-month trip to Australia at the time when the incident occurred - admitted to the assault and said she was drunk when it took place. She claimed that she had been drinking because she had a fear of flying.
Witnesses told the court that the flight's staff tried their best for hours to calm the young woman down but she still chose to act aggressively.
Claire Brocklebank, the prosecutor in the case, explained in court that it took six crew members and passengers to restrain Burton before she was arrested when the Etihad flight touched down in Manchester.
A few people were left injured by the woman's assault. Those include a consultant anesthetist who was bitten and head-butted and a stewardess who was bitten on the forearm and head-butted around the chin. Burton also made lewd sexual comments to two men and attacked staff after asking male passengers to join her in the ''mile high club."
After announcing the sentence, Judge John Edwards said he jailed Burton to set an example and deter others because her actions created "the possibility of endangerment of the plane for its 259 passengers."
Burton's defense lawyer Martin Callery said the young woman was "thoroughly ashamed of herself" and "utterly embarrassed at the way she behaved."