Air Rage: A Short History of Trouble in the Skies

Air rage incidents in the past year have included:

FEBRUARY1998: Three British Airways stewardesses attacked by model Lorna Dow, 30, from Manchester, after she found a lavatory engaged on a flight to New York. She had been drinking champagne and cannabis tea. US police held her for three days.

APRIL 1998: Businessman John Henson, 33, fined pounds 6,700 after he threatened to kill the pilot and butt a passenger. He smashed a seat and indecently assaulted a stewardess on a BA flight from Gatwick to Orlando. The aircraft was forced to divert to Boston amid safety fears.

OCTOBER 1998: Steven Handy banned for life from planes, trains and ferries after he attacked Airtours stewardess Fiona Weir when drunk on a fligh to Malaga. The stewardess, scarred for life, required 40 stitches in her head and arm.

NOVEMBER 1998: Former Stone Roses star Ian Brown jailed after losing appeal against a four month sentence for threatening to chop off the hands of an air stewardess. The judge said he wanted to send a strong message to others who indulged in "loutish behaviour" while airborne.

JANUARY 1999: Seven staff and passengers needed to overpower and handcuff 36-year-old man on BA flight from Johannesburg after he allegedly assaulted four crew members just one hour into the flight to Heathrow.

JANUARY 1999: BA forced to divert Bangkok bound Boeing 747 to Delhi after Lee Thresher punches out aircraft inner window and bites woman's headphones in half. He had taken a mixture of drink and pills.

Gary Finn