Jet passenger 'spat with rage' at smokers

AN "ENRAGED" anti-smoker endangered a Boeing 747 airliner and the hundreds of people on board as he "spat with venom" and behaved "like a man possessed" after he was placed behind a couple who had lit up, a court heard yesterday.

Businessman John Bagwell first called one fellow traveller a "savage and an animal" and branded a hostess who came to help as "pathetic" it was claimed.

Red-faced and trembling, the 42-year-old, described as medically sensitive to cigarette fumes, then allegedly stormed onto the flight deck to berate the captain about the way he had been treated, Isleworth Crown Court was told.

Eventually he calmed down enough to be allocated a seat more to his liking but then lost his temper once more when the captain came down to see if everything was all right, said Joe Boothby, for the prosecution.

When the 10-hour South African Airways flight from Cape Town touched down at Heathrow he was pointed out to police and arrested.

Mr Bagwell, of Mayfair, central London, denies one charge of "recklessly or negligently acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft or persons within" on 13 December last year.

Mr Boothby explained that unlike most airlines, South Africa Airways permitted smoking on board. But it was confined to the three front rows in the economy class.

Unfortunately for Mr Bagwell he was allocated a seat right behind them. Mr Boothby told the court that 15 minutes after take-off the No Smoking signs were turned off.

"Various people lit up, not surprising I suppose if they had taken the trouble to book into the smoking section."

The defendant, he said, instantly "flared up", he alleged, and screamed at them to stub their cigarettes out.

"This, the smokers declined to do, their attitude being that that was why they were here and they were allowed to smoke ..."

The barrister said the businessman accused one passenger of being "a savage and an animal". He claimed that Mr Bagwell then turned on an air hostess who came to see what all the noise was about and greeted her with a "volley of abuse" and calling her "pathetic".

The trial was adjourned until today.