Jeffery Libby, a 21-year-old Texas Christian University student from Dallas, caused the diversion of a transatlantic flight after he allegedly drank a liter of Bacardi before assaulting airline staff and fellow passengers.
As a result, Libby was charged with three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of drunkenness on an aircraft and was sentenced to six months in prison.
According to reports, while on a December 17 British Airways flight from London Heathrow Airport to Dallas, Libby — a 21-year-old journalism major at TCU — allegedly spit at people, assaulted a flight attendant, and bit the hand of a fellow passenger.
The incident forced the pilot of the flight to divert back to Heathrow Airport, costing British Airways “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
via Daily Mail:
The trouble began when Libby began to punch and kick the seat of a passenger in front of him, which he believed was being moved backwards into him. Members of the aircrew then came to Libby to ask him to calm down and his drunken behavior was caught on camera by shocked passengers.
Libby began to spit and bite at crew members and passengers as they attempted to restrain him. One passenger, Stephen Mumford, attempted to restrain Libby by holding the Texan’s head. One of his fingers slid into Libby’s mouth and the journalism student bit him.
Libby, a student at Texas Christian University, then squeezed the arm of Samantha Jackson, a BA air hostess, as she attempted to restrain him with Mr Mumford. The pilot made the decision to turn the plane back to London with eight hours of journey time to Dallas left.
While in court, Michael Wolkind, an attorney for Libby, said that his client had recently been dumped by his girlfriend at the time of the incident.
Libby will serve his six-months at Isleworth Crown Court.
