Mother´s air rampage after Majorca holiday

A drink and drug–crazed Teesside mother brought terror to 200 holidaymakers when she tried to open the doors of a Boeing 757 at 30'000ft on a flight from Palma to Newcastle, a court heard this week. Charmain Pitt ran amok on the holiday flight after downing a potentially lethal cocktail of lager and valium – prescribed after the registered drug addict ran out of heroin half way through her holiday. The 26–year–old attacked fellow passengers, abused cabin crew and was finally restrained as she tried to open the plane doors while the packed jet was a mile high. This week, she was jailed for four months at Teesside Crown Court for the air rage incident which turned a routine return home into a trip of terror for dozens of sun–seeking families last June. Newcastle Crown Court heard that Pitt went beserk on the JMC flight from Palma to Newcastle. She had been treated to the sunshine break in Majorca by her father after completing a probation order. But the drug addict ran out of her prescribed heroin substitute, methadone, during the holiday and was given valium instead by a Spanish doctor. Just before she boarded her flight home, Pitt downed eight of the pills and swigged several pints of lager. A woman sitting next to her on the flight raised the alarm with flight attendants, claiming that Pitt was intoxicated. The crew tried to delay take off at Palma– but were too late because the pilot had already started his run. For the next two–and–a–half hours, Pitt wreaked havoc. The court heard how she attacked one woman knocking off her glasses and tried to push another woman out of her seat. She even demanded the captain ring her boyfriend to let him know when the plane would be landing. She then made for the exit door and tried to pull open the handle to the horror of passengers. Cabin crew managed to restrain her and the pilot alerted ground staff ahead at Newcastle Airport. She was arrested when police boarded the plane. Pitt admitted endangering the safety of passengers and interfering with the crew. Jailing her for four months, Judge Tony Lancaster said: “The passengers and crew must have been very frightened by what was going on.” Sean Grainger, defending, said: “Her behaviour was ridiculous and over the top. She doesn't have a great deal of memory of what happened.”