Air rage rant by rock star costs him £25,000
SCOTS rocker Kyle Falconer has been left nearly £25,000 out of pocket after making a homophobic remark to an air steward in a drunken rage on a flight.
The singer with The View has admitted friends and family had to bail him out of a £14,000 bill from the airline because he is almost ‘penniless’ and is paid only £350 a week.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard the 30year-old was returning to Glasgow from a holiday when he lost the plot after being unable to sit next to fiancée Laura Wylde on a Jet2 flight from Reus, near Barcelona.
Falconer had to sit in front of Miss Wylde but repeatedly spun around to talk to her, banged into the woman next to him and spilled his drink over her before squaring up to her husband.
He shouted and swore when asked to behave before calling the male crew member a ‘p***’.
The flight was diverted to Nantes, France, to have Falconer removed, at a cost of £14,000 in extra fuel, compensation for passengers who missed connections and other airport costs.
He also had to pay nearly £9,000 in legal fees and was fined £1,000.
The details emerged yesterday at Paisley Sheriff Court when Falconer, of Dundee, admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm on June 17 last year.
Procurator fiscal depute Margaret McCallum said Falconer was asked to behave after bumping into the woman.
She added: ‘The accused took umbrage and began to shout at the male passenger. He was using the word “f***”.
‘A member of cabin crew asked the accused to stop shouting and sit down, which the accused refused to do. Overheard by one of the witnesses was the phrase, “Is that right, ya p***?”. The pilot diverted the flight to Nantes.’
Defence solicitor Ian Houston said: ‘The band has incurred considerable debts… the members are paid a weekly wage of £350.
‘This whole event has cost him £25,000 – money he doesn’t have. He has a fiancée and an eightmonth-old daughter he dotes on. They do not own a home, they live in a rented flat – he has no assets.
‘I can’t say, and neither can he, what happened to the money he must have earned.’
Mr Houston added: ‘At the time he was drinking heavily – he was a binge drinker. He had too much to drink and reacted adversely to the situation.’
Sentencing Falconer, Sheriff David Pender said: ‘An offence of this type in the confines of an aircraft cabin must be very, very distressing to those affected by it.’