That guy is indeed lucky from the legal point of view. If I am not wrong, for one to be charged for a criminal act, or an attempt to do so, there are some legal requirements to be met. From what I see, the following transpired:-
- Apart from his arrogance or rude request, there was no actual physical act to assault the cabin crew or any other person. Hence, he cannot be charged for assault;
- It would also be difficult to charge with him an attempt to commit an offence. This is because to do so, the Prosecution must prove that he had taken a substantial step towards completing the crime. From what I see, he did not threaten to cabin crew by saying "I am going to beat you up" or show a fist in a threatening behaviour causing the cabin crew to be in fear of being assault. He was "merely" asking for more alcohol and got rude for being refused. Rightly or wrongly, Prosecution probably treated it as a customer service matter.
As I said earlier, I could be wrong and there might be other reasons to issue a warning only. The law is very rigid and can sometimes be unpractical. Charles Dicken, in referring its rigidity, once said, "The Law is a Ass". And there was even a book on it (see photo).
KayPoh aka BusyBody
Administrator: For the latest news on this same pax who allegedly assaulted the crew on his connecting flight to Copenhagen please read comment below.
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