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Two in court over alleged attack on pilot
A court has heard how a mother and daughter attacked an airline pilot in his cockpit after a row broke out because they were not allowed to store a baby carrier in the cabin.
Mary Roberts, 53, and 23-year-old Henrietta Mitaiare, both from London, allegedly pushed Captain Guido Keel to the floor, then scratched and kicked him after their flight arrived at Heathrow Airport in May last year.
Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard the women were travelling from Zurich with Mitaiare’s young daughter when a ‘tussle’ broke out.
Mitaiare asked a flight attendant to put her buggy in the cabin rather than the aircraft hold as the pushchair was ‘too expensive’, Sky News reports.
Two members of airport staff then arrived and an argument started, before the woman’s mother stepped in.
As passengers disembarked at Heathrow, Mitaiare said she wanted to make a complaint, prompting Capt Keel to come out from the cockpit.
Prosecutor Arlene De Silva said he was pushed back into the cockpit, there was a tussle and Mitairare ended up ‘on top of him’.
"The mother also went into the cockpit and was kicking the captain while he was on the floor, saying ‘Get off my daughter’," the prosecutor added.
Capt Keel sustained scratches to his face and arm and a bite on his upper arm.
The women are charged with failing to obey the lawful commands of the aircraft’s captain and assault by beating on board.
They deny the charges. The case continues.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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