Swedish fashion model Marzena Kamizela spent the weekend in jail in Canada over an air rage incident that saw her being wrestled to the floor of a British Airways flight by the Manchester City and former England footballer Danny Mills. Marzena, who has appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan and Men's Health, joined the ranks of air-raging celebrities like Liam Gallagher and Courtney Love when she started to jump on her seat, shout, swear and wave around a wine bottle.
The 32-year-old model pushed away a flight attendant - biting one of them, according to a witness account - and threw away a sternly worded note from the pilot on her Friday flight from London to New York.
"We were astounded by the way the woman was behaving," said Mills, 28, who was sitting a few rows behind her. "We had to help hold her down so that the crew could apprehend her and tie her to her seat."
She was restrained using handcuffs, and the aircraft made an emergency landing at the Happy Valley airbase in Goose Bay, Canada, where she was handed over to the police. The flight arrived with a three-hour delay in New York.
After spending the weekend in jail, Kamizela admitted assaulting three members of cabin crew and endangering the flight, when she appeared at a Goose Bay court yesterday.
Judge William English sentenced her to one year's probation, fined her CN$10,000 and ordered her to pay a further CN$18,490 as compensation to British Airways. The judge said that she would have to remain in Labrador until the money for the fine had been transferred. Kamizela, whose photo credits include advertising campaigns for Martini, pleaded guilty "to get this thing behind me" but said that the flight attendants had over-reacted. In the past, celebrities have usually been let off gently after behaving badly in the air. Courtney Love, the singer was merely told off in London after taking off her underwear and noisily celebrating with musicians in a trans-Atlantic flight.
There have been signs however that airlines and courts are tightening up. Diana Ross was arrested and held for five hours after allegedly being abusive to a Heathrow security officer - she was released with a caution.
The gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg spent a night in a cell recently after an alcohol-fuelled incident in Heathrow’s VIP lounge before take off. He was also officially cautioned and was banned from British Airways flights. A few years ago police would not even have been called in for his offence - allegedly swearing at airport staff.
After an incident of air rage - apparently over a scone - on a flight to Australia, the Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was banned for life from Cathay Pacific airlines.
The Danish model May Andersen slapped a flight attendant on a trip from Amsterdam to Miami and, on landing, was refused entry to the United States, which is perhaps the toughest sentence of all for an international model.
The tolerance of air-borne misbehaviour was based partly on the fact that first class passengers are offered large quantities of alcoholic drinks as part of the on-board service and in pre-take off VIP areas.
At a cruising altitude of 30,000ft alcohol has a more potent on the metabolism than at ground level, and becoming dehydrated can also cause irritability, stress and fatigue. Since many air-rage incidents seem to be prompted by alcohol, airlines contribute to the problem. The no smoking ban also increases irritability among smoking passengers. But more and more high-profile passengers seem to be crossing the boundary between drunken antics and outright violence that directly threatens the aircrew and frightens other passengers. Air-rage incidents in the past have included the case of a man defaecating on the food trolley in the First Class section of a flight to Bangkok, and a Japanese passenger who walked down the isle urinating on the seats. Many alleged air-ragers claim later to have had a complete memory lapse. Peter Buck, a guitarist with the group REM, claimed to have suffered a blackout after drinking alcohol and taking a sleeping pill on a long haul flight.
He said at his trial that he had no recall of overturning the food trolley, and was cleared by a UK jury of charges of drunken behaviour.