Woman Put in Plastic Cuffs, Banned for Life By British Airways After Walking Around on Plane

Hair stylist Bridget Nhire has been banned for life by British Airways after getting up to stretch her legs through a flight from London to Dubai.

Bridget Nhire, 33, was left in tears when she was handcuffed and escorted off the flight after the passenger behind her complained that she kept walking around.

…Ms Nhire, from Uxbridge, said: ‘He was telling me to sit down and I said “I have the right to get up and walk around for my health”.

In her version, then, it was all about staving off deep vein thrombosis.

Apparently the crew ‘moved her to the front of the plane’ because off her ‘aggressiveness’. She was also strapped to a seat. She admits to drinking “two glasses of wine with my meal” but claims not to have been drunk.

Although her Google Plus page emphasizes her love of “expensive white wine” and that’s she’s learning “not to take myself seriously and unleash the crazy in me!”

On arrival in Dubai she was escorted from the plane by police but not charged. Since British Airways banned her after taking statements from crew and other customers, they cancelled her return flight home. She’s seeking £350 in compensation (presumably in addition to a refund of the cost of her return flight, which would be normal procedure). Somehow we may not be getting the full story here.

British Airways Flies Both 747s and 777s to Dubai

There may be something about the London – Dubai route. A year ago this month a flight from London to Dubai was forced to turn around after a passenger left the smelliest poo in history in a lavatory. (Of course you’d expect events to happen more frequently on this route than most, simply based on passenger volume as the world’s second-busiest long haul route by seat capacity.)

In this case they appear to have skipped the ‘final warning’ step and moved straight to lifetime ban, but a British Airways spokesperson says that “lifetime bans can be appealed.”