NOVOSIBIRSK/YEKATERINBURG, December 16 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian plane had to make an emergency landing in Siberia on Sunday after a drunk passenger beat up a flight attendant in a dispute over the toilet, a police spokesman said.
"The man was an economy class passenger and tried to use the business class toilet, which is prohibited. He had a spat with a flight attendant and punched him seven or ten times,” Siberian transport police spokesman Timur Kurbangaleyev said.
The passenger, aged 45, was already drunk when he boarded the Moscow-bound plane in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, police said.
The plane had to perform an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, where the flight attendant was hospitalized with a head injury and bruises. The plane was refueled and took off about two hours later.
The passenger was detained and taken to a Novosibirsk police department.
Urals media reported Monday that the passenger, identified as Andrei Tretyakov, is the Chelyabinsk Region's former deputy governor.
Siberian police said they have no information to confirm the reports, because the man told officers he was currently unemployed. A spokesman for the Chelyabinsk Region administration confirmed that a deputy governor who resigned more than a year ago had the same name, but said he was uncertain whether that person had been detained.
A criminal case has been launched into hooliganism. The passenger faces up to five years in prison if charged and found guilty. A judge will decide on Tuesday whether pretrial detention is necessary.
Russian airlines have recently suffered a series of incidents involving rowdy passengers, prompting the country’s lawmakers to push for tougher measures against them.
Lawmakers and airlines earlier proposed raising fines, installing CCTV cameras on board, creating an official blacklist of misbehaving passengers and banning alcohol on board. None of the numerous bills submitted to the parliament have been passed so far.
The average fine for unruly in-flight conduct in Russia is about 5,000 rubles ($150).
Vladimir Chertok, the deputy head of Russia’s Federal Service for Transport Supervision (Rostransnadzor), said earlier this week that Russia’s transport watchdog is considering raising fines for unruly passengers to thousands of US dollars by obliging them to cover costs caused by their actions.
Updates with information about the passenger and possible charges against him.
