Miguel Saez Sanchez, 32, ate a biscuit laced with marijuana before a transatlantic flight and became delusional once the plane was in the air, resulting in his dismissal, an employment appeals tribunal has heard.
During the incident Mr Sanchez became tearful and thought that passengers were taking photographs of him, the Irish Independent reported. When a fellow employee tried to calm him down he said that he could feel fleas and lice crawling on his body.
At one stage Mr Sanchez walked up to passengers with his jacket on and a briefcase in his hand, with one curious traveller stating “that gentleman looks like he’s going somewhere”.
“He looked like he was getting off the flight,” senior cabin crew member Margaret Curran said.
The details of the meltdown, which occurred during a flight from San Francisco to Dublin in 2009, were made public at the UK Employment Appeals Tribunal, where Mr Sanchez is fighting his dismissal. The tribunal heard that Mr Sanchez had attended a party the day before the flight and had consumed three or four vodkas as well as diet pills – which are banned by the airline – and the marijuana.
He claims that he was not aware that the biscuit contained the drug, and once his friends informed him of its contents he had an attack of paranoia. He said that he felt fine the next day, with a senior member of the cabin crew on his flight reporting that there was no sign prior to take-off that he was unfit to fly. However the full effects of the drug hit him during the flight.
Mr Sanchez’s lawyer argues that he took the drug unwittingly and that the disciplinary procedures that resulted in his dismissal were flawed. However a spokesman for Aer Lingus said that the consumption of marijuana, slimming pills and alcohol by a cabin crew member “is nothing short of folly in the highest”.
