A man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a female flight attendant and who pleaded guilty to disrupting a flight from London Luton Airport last year has been jailed for six months.
Kramat Khan, 36, of Stone Close, Great Denham, was travelling to Tenerife with EasyJet on 29th June 2019.
During the flight, he inappropriately touched a member of cabin crew as she carried out an inflight drinks service.
When Khan was challenged about his behaviour, he claimed that it was an accident.
Later on during the flight, as the same female flight attendant was working alone in the galley, Khan grabbed her from behind in a ‘tight hug’, and kissed her neck, ignoring her repeated pleas for him to stop.
Throughout the flight, Khan repeatedly left his seat and removed his shirt.
This was despite repeated requests from the crew and from the pilot for Khan to stop his disruptive behaviour.
The flight crew had become increasingly concerned for the safety and comfort of all passengers on board.
Khan continued to ignore their requests, and his behaviour escalated to become abusive and aggressive towards the crew and the other passengers.
Khan also became racially abusive towards members of the crew who tried to assist.
The pilot was forced to request a priority landing in Tenerife.
However, the crew decided to report Khan’s behaviour to police on their return to the UK rather than to the Spanish authorities.
At Luton Crown Court on Friday (31st July), Khan was sentenced to six months imprisonment for endangering an aircraft.
For the sexual assault, he was sentenced to a further two months to run concurrently, and one month for racially aggravated harassment, also concurrent.
Sergeant James Hart of our Airport Policing Unit said:
“Khan’s behaviour posed a serious risk to the crew and passengers, and he acted disrespectfully towards a female member of the crew, leaving her shaken and distressed for several days after.
“We are pleased that the severity of his actions have been recognised by the court in the form of a jail term.
“The crew’s primary responsibility is for the safety of the aircraft and its passengers, and Khan’s behaviour put that in jeopardy.
“Abusive and disruptive passengers must expect to be firmly dealt with, and this behaviour is never acceptable, let alone on board an aircraft.”
Mick Broster, Head of Security for EasyJet, said:
“Whilst serious disruptive passenger incidents are rare, EasyJet will not tolerate them. We take them very seriously, always push for prosecution, and fully co-operated with the police during their investigation.
“The safety and wellbeing of all of our passengers and crew is our highest priority.”
If you have a story you want to tell, or video you want to share, send it to Emergency Services News via contact@emergency-services.news
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for more news, videos, blogs and stories: @ES_News_
Can you help Emergency Services News?
We when set our website up in November 2018, we had a straightforward mission: to bring our readers factual stories, which are free from negative bias but which are enriched with qualified experience.
Each member of our in-house team of writers has served in either the armed forces, emergency services or NHS.
This means that we can bring our readers not only the stories which matter but also stories without the negative spin.
But we cannot do this without your help. As ad revenue – the staple income of most publishers – continues to fluctuate, then we need the help of our supporters and readers more than ever.
Become a donor: You can make a one-off or reoccurring donation via Paypal. CLICK HERE to become a donor
We would like to thank you in advance for your continued support.
WATCH:
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of our readers.
And remember, if you have a service, product or job vacancy that you would like to promote to our large readership, then you can buy advertising space in our articles.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
