Two similar incidents, two different outcomes

For the second time in a week, an airline passenger decided to urinate on a plane without bothering to go into the toilet.

On Tuesday, French actor Gerard Depardieu, relieved himself on the floor a his upcoming flight from Paris to Dublin. According to witnesses, the inebriated actor got up as the plane was taxiing for take-off, announced he had to relieve himself—he used other words—but was told  by the flight attendant that he’d have to sit down and wait. Instead, he got up and urinated on the carpet. He then quietly sat down. 

The “dumbfounded” crew turned the plane around and went back to the gate. The flight was delayed two hours while the carpet was cleaned. No reports of arrest or even if Depardieu was taken off the plane. In fact, the airline, Cityflyer, posted the following two tweets:

“As you may have seen on the news, we are busy mopping the floor of one of our planes this morning…” and “We’d also like to remind all passengers that our planes are fully equipped with toilet facilities.”

Last week, an 18 year old potential future member of the U.S. Olympic Team, also inebriated, urinated on the floor of an airborne Jet Blue flight right near a sleeping 11 year old girl. He was arrested and kicked out of the development program for the Olympics. 

What do you think? Overreaction? Underreaction? Specail treatment? 

(Frank II)

Update on August 19, 2011 by Frank@OBOW

French actor Edouard Baer, who was flying with Depardieu on the day of the incident, said Depardieu wanted to apologize for the incident and explain that he was not drunk but actually suffers from a prostate problem. He said the incident was humiliating for Depardieu. 

Baer also said  that Deaprdieu offered to clean it up.

We also learned that Depardieu was removed from that flight and caught a later one to Dublin.

A note to Mr Depardieu….here in America we have a product you may be interested in. It’s called “Depends.” 

(Frank II)

Comments

[Esther]

I think these two incidents demonstrate why you shouldn't go on a bender before boarding a plane.

[Paula S]

Airlines are strict enough about who can sit in the emergency exit seats (i.e. those pax have to be able bodied and all that), surely having a person on board who is drunk enough to urinate in the cabin is also a detriment to successful emergency evacuation, especially if they pass out in their seat and cannot be woken up. Although, if someone next to me was drunk and unconscious I'd have no qualms about stepping on/over them to evacuate the plane quickly.
Gerard Depardieu has pulled some strange stunts before when under the influence, so this one doesn't really surprise me, but I hope they dealt with him accordingly. he deserves to be arrested for it.....again.
The 18 yr old Olympic hopeful should be aware that if they make the team, they will become an ambassador of their country and should be setting good examples......peeing on the cabin floor isn't one of them. I understand why the organisation kicked him out.

All very well mopping up but if they don't clean up thoroughly the smell would be horrible.

[S]

1) 18-year-old. Underage drinking. A crime.
2) Besides arrest, the other sanctions the 18-year-old faced came from his own organization, not the government.

[Andrew]

FAA regs prohibit an airline from boarding any passenger who " appears to be intoxicated". Drunks have always been problematic for airlines. Of course, drunks are boarded constantly since the airline doesn't want the hassle and the TSA isn't particularly focused on sobriety compliance (yet).
FWIW, the US teen disgraced himself in US jurisdiction, while GD disgraced himself (and still got some free publicity) on an EU aircraft and EU jurisdiction. No sympathy for either. I like the idea of GD's fellow passengers, delayed by his actions, sueing him for big bucks for their missed connections, mental distress, psychological trauma, etc. ;-)