Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Gujarat
Puducherry
|
| September 15, 2009 | Drunken socialite strips, cavorts with passenger on Kingfisher flight | | London: A drunken Brit socialite reportedly stripped to her knickers and cavorted with a male passenger in full view of fellow travellers on a Kingfisher Airlines flight from Bangalore to Heathrow. According to Bill McGivern, prosecuting,
Clare Irby, 30, a descendant of the Guinness brewing family, began drinking red
wine shortly after boarding the 11-hour flight in March this year. Isleworth Crown
Court in London is said to have been told that Irby allegedly let her toddler
son run around the plane without a nappy on, and, at one stage, even tossed a
soiled nappy onto a row of seats behind her. She was even seen kissing fellow
passenger Daniel Melia, and allowing him to fondle her breasts, despite the fact
that his girlfriend was with him on the flight. And when she was denied alcohol
by the airline staff, who had been ordered by the captain not to give her any
more, she became abusive towards them. Flight attendant Shivaneji Sharma told
the jury Irby had drunk three to four glasses of wine in the first 90 minutes
of the flight. "Her speech was slurred. She was asking for more and more red wine,"
the Telegraph quoted her as saying. "She had absolutely no clue about the child
and the way she was behaving was not tipsy, but drunk," she stated. McGivern said
that, at one point, Irby took off her skirt, revealing her black G-string, before
changing into a pair of leggings in her seat in row 26 near the back of the aircraft.
"She was too drunk at that time that she herself didn't know what she was doing,"
Arpita Mehra, another flight attendant, said. "She was travelling with her kid
and she was not in a state that could take care of her child. "The child was all
on his own and was crying in the cabin. She was busy with the guest sitting behind
her. "They were having a conversation and getting personal with each other and
the child was crying. "The man was leaning forward and grabbing hold of her breast
and they were kissing each other," she said. Asked how Irby reacted, she replied:
"She was enjoying it." Neil Saunders, defending, suggested to the air stewardess
that Melia, who was not in court, had in fact touched Irby's upper arm, but she
insisted it was her breast. "She was behaving in an unruly manner," Mehra added.
Saloni Khanna, director of the crew on flight number IT001, said that at one point
she saw Irby sprawled across four seats. "Her skirt had risen up to the waist
and her underpants were visible. The child had dirtied his diapers and she wasn't
aware. I told the crew to take care of the child," she said. After allegedly fondling
Irby, Melia had an argument with another man and slapped him on the hand. He then
had a row with his girlfriend at the back of the plane, which led staff to call
the police, asking them to attend on their arrival at the airport. The jury was
told Irby was arrested when the flight landed, and a police officer believed that
she was still drunk when he attended. In a police interview Irby, whose late grandfather
Robert Henderson was chairman of private bank Kleinwort Benson, said she was a
single mother and was very tired on the flight. She said she had no more than
four or five glasses of wine during the flight and as she had not eaten properly
it had affected her more than normal. "She did not accept there was anything inappropriate
with a male on the flight and didn't accept she had thrown a dirty nappy," McGivern
said. Irby, of Fulham, west London, who attended court with her Old Etonian father
Paul Aschan, denies being drunk on an aeroplane. | |
More Travel News Headlines
|
|
|
|
|
