A 33-year-old woman who drunkenly abused a Ryanair flight attendant after being asked to stop vaping on board a plane has avoided jail.

Jessica Horne kicked off during a flight from Fuerteventura to Manchester in March of last year. She shifted from seat to seat around the plane after trying to touch and kiss the member before launching an expletive-ridden racist rant.

Prosecutor Lisa Boocock told Minshull Street Crown Court the abuse was the “worst he [the member of staff] had ever seen”.

Horne, her partner, and their child were on board the flight when she was asked by a cabin crew member to cease vaping, which is strictly prohibited during flights.

Boocock said: “The cabin crew member had to tell her five times to stop vaping for her to eventually stop.”

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On the runway when the plane landed, she was met by police but as they escorted her back to custody, she attacked two officers.

Horne admitted she was drunk when she entered the plane and admitted to racially aggravated harassment and two offences of assaulting a police officer but was handed a suspended sentence, Manchester Evening News reports.

The cabin crew told Horne, who had been drinking beer in Fuerteventura “all day” before the flight, five times to stop vaping before she eventually stopped, the court heard.

Boocock said: “He took her to the back of the plane to calm her down and one passenger offered her his seat so she could sit away from her family, as her partner was also complaining about her behaviour.

“The defendant then touched the flight attendant and tried to kiss him on the cheek.”

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The confrontation escalated further when Horne used racial slurs against the flight attendant, who is of Filipino origin.

Horne called him “a ‘f****** c***k’, a ‘c****y b*****d’ and told him to ‘go back home’,” said Boocock.

She added: “The steward asked the captain to redirect the flight, but the captain said it would not be possible. The defendant then fell asleep 14 minutes before landing.”

The steward described it as “the worst incident I have ever had from a passenger” in his statement to the police.

The court heard Horne had previous convictions for assaults against four other police officers, as well as racially aggravated harassment.

She was handed a suspended sentence back in December 2021 because she failed to provide a specimen of breath when she got pulled over for drink driving.

Horne developed alcohol issues following an abusive relationship in which her ex-partner was sent to prison for two assaults on her, the court heard.

Mitigating, Kristian Cavanagh said there had been no further offending since the flight last March, and that she had never been to prison before. He added that she was making steps to overcome her addiction.

Horne, of Granville Street, was handed an 18 month jail term which was suspended for two years. She was also ordered to complete a 90 day rehabilitation order of alcohol abatement and monitoring.

She was also ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation.

Sentencing, the judge, Recorder Imran Shafi KC said: “I accept when sober you are polite, but you were a very different person during this incident. I’m minded to use the phrase ‘Jekyll and Hyde’.”

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