Legal Commentary

Wine, Pills, and Soap Make Air Passenger Disruptive

By TChris

From time to time, TalkLeft calls your attention to interesting reports of odd crimes or blundering criminals. This story seemed unworthy of note until the lavatory hand soap made its appearance.

United Airlines diverted a flight bound to London after an incoherent and disruptive passenger, apparently woozy from a combination of pills, alcohol and lavatory hand soap, allegedly tried to bite a flight attendant in the leg.

Really, it would be hard to write a better lede than that one. The soap ingester in question is Galina Rusanova, "described by the British press as a Russian-born artist, actress and author who rubs elbows with the rich and famous." To cope with her fear of flying, Rusanova took four sleeping pills and drank two or three bottles of wine. Three hours into the flight from Los Angeles (where she was visiting a fellow she met on the internet), the story gets interesting: [more ...]

About three hours into the flight, a United flight attendant said she found Rusanova with her feet on her in-flight food tray, kicking the seat in front of her. Rusanova, who appeared to be very intoxicated according to a court filing, requested more wine and then fell asleep.

A short time later, the same United crew member was told by passengers that Rusanova was incoherent and bothering fellow travelers. As she approached, she saw Rusanova "drink a bottle of liquid soap that she had apparently removed from the bathroom," according to the court document.

The wines furnished by domestic airlines can be awfully mediocre, but even a novice wine drinker should be able to distinguish bad wine from hand soap. Rusanova is apparently no novice, given that one of the few things she remembers about the flight is her argument with a flight attendant over the quality of the wine.

As the beleaguered flight attendants tried to subdue the feisty artist/actress/author/soap addict, she punched, kicked, and pushed them.

At one point, she fell to the floor of the galley in the rear of the aircraft and began "snapping like a dog," trying to bite a flight attendant's leg, according to [court documents].

The extent to which drinking the hand soap contributed to Rusanova's intoxication, aggression, or dog snapping is unclear. Just to be safe, TalkLeft recommends that you avoid mixing sleeping pills, wine, and hand soap, even if you're afraid of flying.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 06, 2009 (boomark / email).