Just when you thought that turmoil at Terminal 5 was over – enter Naomi

Published on Friday 4 April 2008 00:46

"TEETHING troubles" have already provoked angry outbursts from many a frustrated passenger this week.

But yesterday a dispute over luggage saw supermodel Naomi Campbell arrested and escorted from a plane at Heathrow's Terminal Five on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

The catwalk star, who has a reputation for losing her temper and was last year ordered to undertake community service for throwing a mobile phone at her maid, was put in a cell at the airport, where she was expected to spend the night.

The 37-year-old's latest run-in with the law began when British Airways cabin crew alerted police to a "disturbance" on a plane due to depart for Los Angeles.

It is understood to have followed a lengthy exchange with staff about one of three items of hand baggage the model had attempted to take on board the aircraft.

Following the airline's difficulties – which have seen almost 30,000 bags go missing in recent days – the supermodel was apparently reluctant to place her belongings in the hold.

When police arrived to escort her from the flight, Ms Campbell is said to have assaulted and spat at one of them. She faces up to six months in jail if she is charged with assaulting a police officer.

Passengers reported that the model – who was discovered at the age of 15 by an agency in Covent Garden – was aggressive and abusive to staff and police. Ms Campbell has a notorious temper and is currently facing a lawsuit from her former maid, Gaby Gibson, who claims she was assaulted by the supermodel.

Last year, she pleaded guilty to assault for flinging her jewel-encrusted BlackBerry mobile phone at another maid, Ana Scolavino.

Part of her sentence included a community service punishment at Manhattan's department of sanitation, where she swept, mopped and scrubbed a garage depot for rubbish lorries while wearing a work vest instead of her usual haute couture threads. But in a style befitting a supermodel, she ended the week by sashaying out of the facility, at Pier 36 in Manhattan, in a sequin-encrusted floor-length silver evening gown and stilettos.

A spokeswoman for BAA, which owns Heathrow, said: "Police were called to remove a passenger from a British Airways aircraft. Staff on the aircraft would have called officers."

The airline refused to comment on the disturbance, claiming that data-protection rules prevented them from doing so.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed: "We were called at 5:11pm to a disturbance at Terminal 5. Officers subsequently attended and a 37-year-old was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and was taken to Heathrow police station where she remains. It is quite possible there will be no movement overnight."

Selina Aponte, a publicist for the supermodel, left the Heathrow police station just before 10pm, admitting: "I don't know how long she will be in there."

She said Ms Campbell was flying to the US to visit family and friends and said she had not been able to see the model.

She added: "We have all seen the reports, but I don't know anything."

NOT SO MODEL BEHAVIOUR

NAOMI Campbell has attributed her fiery temper to lingering resentment toward her father for abandoning her as a child.

Last year, she allegedly unleashed a tirade of abuse when she turned up just 11 minutes before the scheduled take-off of a BA plane from Heathrow and demanded that she be allowed to board.

In 2000, she pleaded guilty to attacking her personal assistant Georgina Galanis, who told a Canadian court the model hit her with a phone and threatened to throw her out of a moving car in Toronto. She agreed to attend anger management classes.