Drunk oil and gas expert threatened to kill cabin crew member when plane landed in Edinburgh

An off-shore oil and gas expert threatened to kill a member of cabin crew during a shocking drunken outburst on board an aircraft.

Drunk passenger: Veronique Morel

Veronique Morel told Qatar Airways staff to “f**k off” when they were forced to wake her after the flight from Doha had landed in Edinburgh last year.

Morel, 39, made the threats to kill one employee before emptying her bag on the floor and struggling with police officer.

She then stuck her middle finger up and yelled “f**k you”before she was arrested.

Morel, a seismic acquisition analyst with ION Geophysical, later claimed she could not remember the incident after she had mixed alcohol with medication following four weeks working off-shore.

Shel appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, being drunk on board the aircraft and resisting police arrest.

Prosecutor Hilary Dyer told the court the Qatar Airways flight from Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, landed at Edinburgh Airport at around 1.50pm on August 8 last year.

Ms Dyer said all the passengers had disembarked when cabin crew spotted Morel fast asleep in her seat and had trouble waking her up.

She said: “After a few failed attempts the accused did wake and immediately became abusive towards the crew, shouting ‘f*** off’ and ‘f*** you’ repeatedly.

“The accused was unsteady on her feet and cabin crew could smell alcohol. While disembarking she also made threats towards a member of the cabin crew that she would kill her.

“The accused made her way on to the air bridge and she continued to shout ‘f*** off’ and ‘f*** you’ and then began emptying items from her bag onto the floor.”

Police officers attended and after asking for Morel to produced her passport as identification “she told them to ‘f*** off’”.

The fiscal added Morel “raised her middle finger” at the officers and after being arrested and cuffed she “dropped to her knees” and “attempted to break free” from their grip.

She was also said to have “wedged her legs against the door” of the police vehicle and continued to shout and swearing on route to Livingston police station.

The court was told Morel later became “apologetic and tearful” as she sobered up at the station and said she could not remember what had happened as she had mixed alcohol with her medication.

She told officers she had not drunk alcohol for four weeks as she had been working off-shore and had downed drinks at the airport in Doha before getting on the plane.

Morel, of Marchmont, Edinburgh, declined to have any legal representation and told the court she “could not remember waking up on the plane but I do remember being in the police station”.

She gave no more mitigation and Sheriff Adrian Fraser QC deferred sentence to February next year for the preparation of social work reports.

Morel pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by acting in an aggressive manner, shouting, swearing and uttering threats of violence towards a member of cabin crew while on board an aircraft at Edinburgh Airport on August 8 last year.

She also admitted to being drunk on board the Qatar Airways flight between Hamad International Airport, Doha and Edinburgh Airport and to resisting police arrest by attempting to break free and placing her feet against the door of a vehicle in an attempt to prevent being placed within the vehicle on the same date.

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