A British Airways flight attendant has been arrested after allegedly stripping naked and dancing under the influence of drugs in the toilet of a packed transatlantic flight.
The 41-year-old steward is said to have vanished mid-service while working on BA’s ten-hour flight from San Francisco to London Heathrow last Sunday, May 25. Fellow crew members found him completely naked inside a lavatory in the Club World business cabin, reportedly “out of it” and dancing erratically at 37,000 feet.
Sources say the man was meant to be helping serve meals when staff realised he was missing. Cabin crew discovered him locked in the toilet, having allegedly taken pills during the flight. Instead of offering passengers dinner options, the steward had reportedly staged what one colleague described as a “one-man disco”.
Shocked crew dressed the man in pyjamas usually reserved for first-class passengers and restrained him in a luxury seat for the remainder of the flight. The rest of the team were forced to work without breaks as the flight continued across the Atlantic.
Police were alerted ahead of landing and arrested the man at Heathrow on suspicion of being unfit for duty. He was taken to hospital first for assessment before being taken into custody.
A Met Police spokesperson confirmed: “On Sunday, 25 May at 09:32hrs, police based at Heathrow Airport were called by cabin crew following concern for welfare of a man on an inbound flight from San Francisco. A 41-year-old man was taken to hospital for treatment once the flight had landed. He was later arrested and has since been released under investigation.”
British Airways declined to comment, describing the matter as a police investigation. However, a source close to the crew claimed: “It’s an extraordinary thing to do. Rather than asking passengers ‘chicken or beef’, he was stripping off and dancing in the toilet. He was completely out of it.”
The crew member added: “This job can do ridiculous things to people, but that was a new one on all of us.”
