British passenger puts his hand up stewardess's skirt and sexually assaults her

A 66-year-old British man faces trial in France for putting his hand up a stewardess's skirt and sexually assaulting her on a Jet2 flight from Leeds (LBA/EGNM) to Alicante (ACL/LEAL).

The passenger jet was forced to make an emergency landing in the western French city of Nantes (NTE/LFRS) after the 'seriously drunk' 66-year-old carried out the sexual assault last Saturday morning.

The unnamed pensioner has admitted putting his hand under the skirt of the air attendant and touching her intimate parts while she was handing out refreshments.

When the plane touched down, he was arrested by French border police, and he is now due to face trial in December.

The aircraft's captain ordered the emergency landing. The man, a pensioner, has now been released under judicial control and must now appear in court for the trial on December 13, Nantes prosecutors said in a statement.

The accused 'admitted to what was committed against the air attendant. He was in a seriously drunken state when he was handed over to the the border police,' added regional prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul.


One passenger who was onboard the flight stated 'We were just settling into the flight, everyone on the flight around us were in good spirits. It was a 7am flight,  people were merry not drunk including our selves. We were just about to be served from the inflight bar as the chief stewardess apologised and said so sorry there’s been an incident at the back of the plane. The jet 2 team then concentrated on the issues.

'Obviously the Chinese whispers came down towards the front of the plane were we were sat. We were so distraught upset and angry that someone could do a vile act. We then realised that the plane was descending.

'We really haven’t got over this event and it has put a downer in the start of our break away together which we have waited for since Covid.'

In mid-May, a Ryanair flight between Manchester in England and Faro in Portugal was also diverted to Nantes airport after five drunken English travellers disturbed other passengers.