United Airlines flights: Man fined £8.4k for urinating in seat and aisle on flight - forcing plane to divert to Dublin

Zachary Greear, 34, forced a Newark-bound flight to be diverted to Dublin on Monday (13 January) after he mixed the tranquilliser xanax with booze before becoming disruptive on the United Airlines flight. The flight, which had departed from Amsterdam, had to dump more than £24,000 worth of fuel following the passenger's "appalling" behaviour.

The plane had been in the sky for just two hours when Greear began acting "unruly", disrupting passengers and urinating over his seat and in the aisle. After the plane landed, police said he was so drunk he "couldn't understand where he was."

Greear was arrested and pleaded guilty to intoxication, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, and causing annoyance onboard an aircraft. Judge Michéle Finan labelled his actions "appalling" after the 153 passengers and its 13 crew members were forced to deal with the unruly passenger.

“Can you imagine the fear and trauma he caused to a pilot who is trying to manage people safely on his aircraft, to passengers, to employees of the airline who have to dump fuel and turn around a flight and land in a jurisdiction they never expected to be in?” the judge said. Greear was handed a two-month suspended sentence for two years on Tuesday (14 January).

However, she recognised his written apology and his willingness to pay the £8,435 fine for damages he caused. His solicitor, Eoghan O’Sullivan, said his client was "horrified and embarrassed" by his behaviour and had offered a "most sincere apology." He had no previous convicitons.