A holidaymaker who had to make a 1,100 mile trip home by road after he forced a Jet2 flight into an emergency has been left with an £8,400 bill and fine for his 'reprehensible' behaviour.
Liam McKeown's verbal abuse towards cabin crew and fellow passengers on the flight out of Glasgow to Ibiza was so unacceptable that the pilot landed the jet at Toulouse on July 7 last year.
McKeown, 25, was offloaded, spent eight hours in a French police station and made his own way home to Cumbernauld by bus.
McKeown was fined a total of £3,200 after he pleaded guilty to offences under the Civil Aviation Act, including being drunk on a plane and behaving in a threatening and abusive manner.
He is also being pursed by Jet2 for £5,200 including interest for the cost of the disruption.
Sentencing, Sheriff Vincent Canavan said he was unable to jail him because the offences were committed in the air.
He said: "If it was committed on dry land he's be going to jail. This was reprehensible behaviour."
The airline's mangaing director Phil Ward: “We hope that Mr McKeown has learned an important lesson. The consequences of his actions send out a strong message that this behaviour will not be tolerated.”
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