A British Airways passenger assaulted an American woman during a transatlantic flight after he was caught using a vape which ‘smelled of weed’ in the toilet.
Louis Gaston, 31, shoved fellow passenger Laurel Dillon into her seat so hard she suffered bruising after he was unable to find his bag when the flight from New York to London landed.
He admitted telling Mrs Dillon and her husband Zachary Lowry to ‘move out of my f****** way’ or ‘let me f****** get by’ but had denied assault.
Mrs Dillon added Gaston had also threatened to ‘bash your heads together’ after landing on November 23, 2025.
While in the air Gaston had been caught vaping in the toilet by a flight attendant, who reported smelling cannabis.
He admitted to being a regular cannabis user and ‘smoked a spliff’ in New York before the flight to London.
During the journey he drank ‘two or three’ gin and tonics and some vodka but denied being drunk on board the plane.
Gaston, of Lambeth, south London, had denied the charges but was found guilty on Wednesday of two counts of assault by beating, one count of failing to obey the lawful commands of a pilot while on an aircraft, and one count of smoking in an aircraft.
Louis Gaston was caught vaping in the toilet on a flight from New York to London in November 2025
He will be sentenced in June.
Gaston and the American couple had been travelling on Flight 172, a six-hour overnight journey from New York JFK to London Heathrow.
As the cabin crew prepared to land around 8am they noticed Gaston had left his seat – the lead flight attendant found him in the toilet and knocked on the door.
She told him to sit down before landing but when he opened the door she smelled cannabis and saw a ‘mist’ inside.
Gaston said the smell and mist were the plane’s air freshener but two flight attendants told Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court the two odours smelled different.
He shut the door again and the flight attendant pushed it open, at which point Gaston shouted and accused her of coming on to him, threatening to make a complaint.
Gaston then sat in a seat near the toilet, which was not his own, and ignored instructions to fasten his seatbelt – a nearby passenger put it on for him.
After landing the court heard he ‘forced his way’ through the ‘very full’ aisle as he tried to collect his hand luggage.
Mr Lowry and Mrs Dillon, who had been sat two rows in front of Gaston’s assigned seat, asked him to wait but he admitted pushing past them to reach his seat.
Unable to find his bag, he threatened the couple and pushed past them ‘three or four’ times.
On the final occasion he put his hand on Mrs Dillon’s arm and hip, shoving her into her seat and causing her to bruise.
Appearing in court through a video link from the US, the tearful New Yorker described Gaston’s threats.
She said: ‘He was attempting to push past me and I turned and said there is nowhere to move, please go to your seat, which we had at that point discovered was behind us.’
Mrs Dillon claimed Gaston said words to the effect of: ‘You don’t want to see me off this plane, you are so lucky we are in here right now, and as soon as we get out of there there will be another story.’
Mr Lowry said being pushed by Gaston had made him ‘uncomfortable, embarrassed and frustrated’.
Gaston threatened and shoved an American woman after the British Airways flight landed
Also on video link from the US, he said: ‘We ended up leaving the plane in a police van, but if we’d left regularly I was planning to make sure we weren’t being followed, to potentially get away from the individual and [his] associates.’
Gaston claimed Mr Lowry had ‘forcefully tried to block’ him from his seat.
Stacey McAdam, defending, argued nobody had seen Gaston vaping and he may not have heard the knocks on the toilet door.
She also claimed he did put his seatbelt on and added that Mrs Dillon and Mr Lowry ‘could have accommodated him as he tried to get by but chose not to’ and that Gaston denied threatening them.
But District Judge Kathryn Verghis found Gaston guilty and told him: ‘I come to the conclusion that you were vaping, you were then uncooperative sitting, so much so a passenger helped you.
‘This gives a very clear picture of your defiant, angry, confrontational behaviour.
‘I am satisfied you were angry and confrontational, you did use bad language.
‘You were barging into other passengers in a crowded gangway when there was no room to move.’
