An ‘obnoxious’ and ‘out-of-control’ mother-of-one who attacked cabin crew and passengers during 90 minutes of drink-fuelled mayhem on board a packed holiday jet was today spared jail.
Zoe Alexander, 36, punched, kicked and bit staff and fellow holidaymakers after knocking back brandy during a nine-hour flight from Manchester to Cuba, a court heard.
Her behaviour was so out of control that she had to be placed in restraining equipment until the TUI jet had landed.
One flight attendant later said it was ‘the most frightening incident’ she had experienced in 30 years in the air.
Today a judge told her that such severe air rage cases had previously resulted in an immediate prison sentence ‘every single time’.
However he agreed to let her walk free with a suspended sentence over the August 2022 rampage after hearing she has since become mother to a one-year-old son and was his sole carer.
But the judge did ban her from travelling abroad for 12 months.
The case comes days after Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary argued that the traditional early morning airport pint should be banned.
Zoe Alexander, 36, (pictured) admitted being drunk on an aircraft and assaulting three members of cabin crew on a flight from Manchester to Cuba in August 2022
Alexander (pictured) punched, kicked and bit staff and fellow holidaymakers after knocking back brandy during a nine-hour flight from Manchester to Cuba, a court heard
Zoe Alexander (pictured after a previous court hearing) walked free from court with a suspended prison sentence after a judge was told she was sole carer for her one-year-old son
He said his airline is being forced to divert flights almost daily because of drunken, aggressive passengers, and the problem is getting worse.
Alexander became rude and aggressive after drinking brandy during the flight, Manchester Crown Court heard today.
Incidents included ‘talking loudly, slurring her words and being overly familiar with passengers and cabin crew’, Blaise Morris, prosecuting, said.
She requested brandies from the in-flight service to ‘knock her out’, sprawled over other passengers and insisted she be given another meal.
Alexander also moved around the plane, ‘swaying from one aisle to another’ and entered and exited premium areas of the plane, Mr Morris said.
When she was told not to enter the premium areas by a female cabin crew member, Alexander called her a ‘f****** b**** c***.’
She was ‘generally rude and abusive’ to other cabin crew and passengers, Mr Morris said.
He said her behaviour ‘deteriorated’ six hours into the flight when she became verbally abusive with passengers sitting in the same row as her.
Zoe Alexander (pictured) behaved so badly during the nine-hour flight to Cuba that she had to be placed in restraining equipment until the TUI jet had landed
Zoe Alexander, 36, pictured after an earlier court hearing
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One woman became so concerned for their children she pressed the assistance button.
A member of cabin crew attended and was able to ‘calm’ her down, albeit only ‘temporarily’, Mr Morris said.
She then ‘flew into a rage’ when a cabin crew member suggested she sat up and watched a film, the court heard.
She became ‘increasingly aggressive’ and ‘wagged her finger’ in the crew member’s face, and refused to listen to her colleagues’ pleas when she was told her behaviour was unacceptable and she needed to calm down.
Crew member Gerard Taylor brought the rarely-used ‘restraining kit’ and attempted to reason with her, without success, and spotted a two-thirds empty bottle of brandy behind her chair.
As another crew member, Bethan Winters, withdrew, Alexander slumped down and kicked out at her.
Alexander also repeatedly hit the TV screen on the seat in front of her while shouting ‘f*** you’ and continued to be abusive and aggressive.
Mr Morris said she caused ‘huge disruption and anxiety’ during the flight and also tried to light a cigarette.
She also pulled off the tie of the cabin crew member who stopped her, punched him in the stomach and told him: ‘F*** you.’
Alexander became so angry and aggressive, cabin crew were forced to restrain her until the plane landed, Mr Morris said.
Alexander (pictured) pulled off a crew member’s tie when he tried to stop her rampage, punched him in the stomach and told him: ‘F*** you.’
Zoe Alexander pictured leaving court following her first appearance in 2023
But one crew member, Gerard Taylor, was punched and bitten on the hand as he tightened a pair of handcuffs and she also lashed out at a passenger, Graham Murphy, who was providing assistance.
The court heard Alexander told him: ‘I hope bad things happen to your children. I hope they die.’
She was later escorted off the plane by Cuban police.
In victim impact statements, crew said they had ‘never experienced’ such treatment.
One said it was ‘the most frightening incident’ she’d experienced in her 30 years as a flight attendant.
Mr Murphy said it was a ‘truly traumatic’ for him and his children, and other passengers.
Alexander, of Hornchurch, Essex, had initially denied charges of being drunk on an aircraft and three counts of assault by beating, but changed her pleas to guilty on the first day of her trial in March.
The court heard she has no previous convictions, but two cautions for theft and criminal damage, and was of previous good character.
Her barrister, Eleanor Gleeson, said Alexander had suffered mental health issues, including an emotional unstable personality disorder, but accepted alcohol was a factor in the incident.
Ms Gleeson said Alexander was ‘horrified’ by her behaviour and ‘recognises the significant impact it had on her victims that day’.
She pleaded for the judge to impose a suspended sentence, saying Alexander was the sole carer for her one-year-old son, and a custodial sentence would have a severe impact.
Ms Gleeson said Alexander had also suffered domestic abuse and cared for her father and feared for his well-being.
‘I’d ask your honour to give her a chance, essentially,’ she said.
Judge Paul Mason told Alexander that she’d behaved in an ‘inexcusable, obnoxious and aggressive’ manner, and in previous similar cases the defendant had been jailed ‘every single time’.
She had ignored warnings and the advice of crew for 90 minutes as they tried to placate her, he said.
‘You were out-of-control, erratic, unpredictable and a danger to the other 300 passengers in the confined space of an aircraft cabin.’
He had considered a ‘deterrent’ custodial sentence, he said, but recognised the ‘clear’ impact it would have.
Therefore, the judge decided to impose a five-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, and banned Alexander from travelling out of the UK for 12 months.
He also ordered her to attend 20 rehabilitation days and imposed a 90-day alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement, along with £75 compensation for each of her victims.
Alexander smiled as she left court with her father, who had watched on from the public gallery.
Calling for a crackdown on alcohol-fuelled bad behaviour last week, Mr O’Leary wants airport bars to stop serving alcohol so early and fall in line with licensing rules of pubs outside airports.
He told The Times: ‘I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o’clock in the morning.
‘Who needs to be drinking beer at that time?’
But Sir Tim Martin, the boss of pub giant JD Wetherspoon, hit back, insisting it had ‘never been suggested’ his customers cause disruption on flights.
He said introducing a limit at airports would mean passengers would have to be breathalysed.
