An 82-year-old man had to face a court of appeal in Luxembourg City on Wednesday for an incident that took place on board a Luxair plane to Rimini in August 2014.

An elderly man started seriously misbehaving shortly before the Luxair plane landed in Rimini, Italy. He injured two flight attendants and had to be tied down for the safety of the crew and passengers.

Quite unrepentant, the man explained the events on Wednesday: "I was asleep for most of the flight. When I woke up, I called the stewardesses, but they didn't react and went straight past me. That's when I got agitated!"

No-one paid attention

The defendant then got up and went to the back of the plane to get a drink. He alleged that he had called the flight attendants several times, but that no-one paid attention to him or even brought him a glass of water.

The lawyer for Luxair and the two flight attendants who were injured in the incident told the court their version of the story. After the man woke up, he allegedly threw a food tray at one of the stewardesses and refused to sit back down again because he wanted a glass of champagne. He bit one stewardess and injured another, which caused her to need an operation a year after the incident. One of the flight attendants had to take six weeks off work after the incident.

Unnecessary incident

When the head judge remarked that the incident was altogether unnecessary, the elderly man defiantly stated: "If the stewardesses had looked over to me, they would have seen that I was calling them!".

In a first court proceeding, the man was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 9 months and a €3,000 fine. In addition to this, he was sentenced to pay €17,500 in damages to the two injured stewardesses and to Luxair.

Put on blacklist

The man has also, quite understandably, been placed on a blacklist, which means that he will no longer be able to board a Luxair flight. He was the first person on that list. It currently includes about five other people.

The flight attendant's lawyer Edévi Amegandji stated that "He'll be able to fly with whomever he chooses, but it won't be Luxair!". Amegandji stated that the man had been acting like a child when he didn't get what he wanted right away, but he also added that the elderly man should not be judged too harshly. After all, had already been punished for his actions by Luxair.

The prosecution believes that the man got himself unnecessarily worked up that day. The initial verdict should be upheld by the court of appeal.

The ruling in this case will be handed down on 17 October.