Passenger assaulted by drunken flight attendants on Aeroflot contract flight

We have all heard about that drunken passenger who got in trouble for giving a flight attendant a hard time. There's always one or two of these clowns every month who've had one too many and decide they want to go up against the uniform. How quickly they find out what a bad idea that is,  no?

This time, the tables have been turned, and it is the first time we've seen one of these: not one, but two drunken male flight attendants assaulting a passenger while on duty on a commercial flight!

According to the Associated Press story, two flight attendants on an Aeroflot domestic flight beat up a passenger who had complained about them. The complaint? That they were drunk, according to airline spokeswoman Irina Dannenberg.

The passenger, an "A. Chernopup," was flying from Moscow to Nizhnevartovsk, in Siberia, Dannenberg said. However, the crew actually belonged to another airline, Aviaenergo.

What did Chernopup do to get the flight attendants so riled up? Apparently, he noticed that they were not quite sober and asked to be served by a "sober and competent" crew, according to Dannenberg. The flight attendants responded by beating him up.

It is not unusual for flight attendants to have to keep drunken passengers under control on Russian flights, but on this flight, the crew didn't even begin the cabin service until an hour and a half into the four hour flight.

Another passenger, quoted on the news daily Izvestia, said that half of the food the crew tried to serve ended up on the floor, and the passengers were reduced to having to walk over it when it came time to disembark.

Chernopup left the airplane with a black eye and was given medical assistance, according to the passenger. A criminal case was opened immediately after Chernopup reported the incident to the police.

Dannenberg said that the plane was carrying out an Aeroflot flight, but both the aircraft and the crew belonged to Aviaenergo. under a contract signed in 2003. She added that the entire crew of the flight has been suspended and an investigation is in progress.

FMI: www.aeroflot.com, www.aviaenergo.ru (Russian-language site)