WATCH: Passenger (allegedly drunk) in heated spat with flight attendant on Boxing Day
A moment during a Boxing Day flight from Durban to Cape Town is going viral.
John Maytham speaks to Linden Birns, the MD of Plane Talking, about inflight alcohol policies following an incident on a FlySafair aeroplane.
Listen below.
A moment during a Boxing Day Safair flight from Durban to Cape Town is going viral.
The video footage, filmed by other passengers on the flight, shows an allegedly unruly and drunk passenger getting upset and spewing 'racist language' at an air hostess.
The woman who later identified herself as Nobuntu Mkhize was caught in a spat with the flight crew, allegedly after they refused to serve her more alcohol on the flight.
However, Mkhize told reporters that she was sober.
It's reported that the woman was allegedly intoxicated before boarding the flight, and whilst the plane was departing, the woman got rowdy.
When the air hostess asked her to be quieter, she allegedly began swearing at her, insulting her job, saying it's 'menial' and that air hostesses 'don't have matric certificates'.
In clips shared and reshared multiple times online, the woman escalates when the air hostess allegedly stops serving her.
In one clip, the woman is seen throwing a drink at the air hostess. In another one, the woman takes off her wig to continue shouting at the hostess.
Upon departure from Cape Town, the police were called to remove the woman from the flight.
FlySafair spokesperson Kirby Gorden said the woman was successfully restrained with the help of passengers.
"We condemn any behaviour of this nature. Flight attendants have a primary duty as safety officers and interfering with their duties is a criminal offence. This passenger will be placed on our no-fly list and will not be welcome on future FlySafair flights," Gorden said.
These were the now-viral videos shared on @MzansiWilding on TikTok and X:
@mzansiwilding #fyp #SAMA28 #capetown #dbn ♬ original sound - MzansiWilding
@mzansiwilding #Flysafair ♬ original sound - MzansiWilding
@mzansiwilding #fyp ♬ original sound - MzansiWilding
@mzansiwilding Part 6 #fyp #SA #SAMA28 ♬ original sound - MzansiWilding
@mzansiwilding Part 7 #fyp ♬ original sound - MzansiWilding
Birns explains what the civil aviation law might say about this.
"Section 91-01-15 of our Civil Aviation Act is very clear... paragraph three says, no person may act in any manner that will or is likely to endanger the aircraft or its occupants. The previous two paragraphs say you may not board an aircraft while you're under the influence of alcohol or any psychoactive substance... and you may not consume alcohol or a psychoactive substance while you're onboard an aircraft if that's likely to result in the endangerment and the safety of its occupants. So the law is quite explicit."
- Linden Birns, MD - Plane Talking
According to Birns, "Whether she was sober or under the influence of medication or whatever, the point is, the behaviour was unruly and that's not acceptable."
"The cabin attendants are there for a primary purpose and that's the safety of the passengers. If there's an emergency onboard, their job is to try and get you out and save your lives and if you're intoxicated in any way, you will impede the evacuation of that aircraft and you could then be responsible for causing other people's deaths or injuries so that's rule number one..."
- Linden Birns, MD - Plane Talking
"Airlines need to be able to train their cabin attendants on how to identify passengers whose behaviour would indicate that they are intoxicated or under some sort of influence of substance causing bad behaviour... and they're taught to try and deescalate and if they can't, then to try and at least restrain the passenger and the pilot is duty-bound and legally obliged to either land the aircraft and disembark the passenger and report the incident to the law enforcement authorities who are obliged to follow through."
- Linden Birns, the MD of Plane Talking
"It comes down to training and corporate culture... your duty-free outlets and pubs in airports are also required as part of that chain... to identify and have mitigating practices in place to stop people from having one too many and have a very visible communications campaign and it has to be backed up by very stringent enforcement with the option of imprisonment and fines."
- Linden Birns, MD - Plane Talking
"At the end of the day, airlines want to treat passengers as responsible adults and it's up to every one of us who travels to behave in a responsible way and if you don't, you've got to face the consequences."
- Linden Birns, MD - Plane Talking
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.