TUI flight forced to turn after 'incoherent' twin sisters get into drink-fuelled row

Laura and Katie Butterworth caused trouble on a flight to Fuerteventura

A flight to Fuerteventura was forced to turn around following the actions of two women on board. Laura and Katie Butterworth, who are twins, were hauled before a judge following the incident on a TUI plane.

Laura Butterworth was ‘incoherent, volatile and abusive’ and began vomiting after being thrown off the plane at Manchester Airport. Katie Butterworth was ‘argumentative’ and did not sit down when asked.

The pair, 34, caused trouble on an aircraft which was taxiing before its departure to Fuerteventura. Katie Butterworth’s barrister told Manchester Crown Court: “The holiday was simply to have an inexpensive break in the sun for a week with her sister, which didn’t go to plan.”

READ MORE: The scandalous truth about Birmingham's child poverty emergency laid bare

The twins were sat on different aisles of the plane one in front of the other on June 1 this year. Laura Butterworth became involved in an argument with a woman sitting next to her after the defendant’s bag fell into the aisle and its contents ‘spilled onto the floor’, the Manchester Evening News reports.

The court heard how Laura blamed the woman for the bag falling and called her ‘vile’. The sisters also became involved in an argument, prosecutor Adam White said.

The cabin crew manager decided to move Laura to another seat away from her sister. The manager said Laura was ‘completely incoherent’ and ‘volatile towards myself and other crew members’.

She added that Katie Butterworth got up from her seat and said she had done nothing wrong. Katie, a mum-of-three, was ‘constantly up and down out of her seat'.

The manager decided that due to their behaviour, the plane would be turned around and brought back to the terminal. The pair were removed from the aircraft and arrested by police.

After being charged, Katie Butterworth said: “I got blanketed with Laura, they couldn't tell us apart. They treated us as the same person, everything she did I got equal blame for and I wasn't the same. I don't like throwing her into it but it's not fair, it wasn't like that.”

Katie Butterworth, of Redhill Drive, Stockport, pleaded guilty to intentionally interfering with performance of an aircraft member’s duty. Laura Butterworth, of Lapwing Lane, Brinnington, pleaded guilty to entering an aircraft when drunk.

Defending Katie Butterworth, Sarah Hussell said that she had drunk two glasses of wine before getting onboard. She denied that she was ‘intoxicated’.

Ms Hussell said that Katie, who runs a printing business, had undergone a stressful period before the flight, having to home school her child and agreeing a payment plan for debts.

She said: "The holiday was simply to have an inexpensive break in the sun for a week with her sister, which didn’t go to plan." Defending Laura Butterworth, Naomi Duckworth said she had expressed ‘deep remorse’ for her actions which were ‘totally out of character’.

She said Butterworth is currently unemployed but is ‘working through the recruitment process’ for a job with the fire service, adding they are aware of her conviction.

Judge Patrick Field KC told the twins: "Some people think it is acceptable to drink to excess before they get onto an aeroplane, and then inflict their entitled and obnoxious bad behaviour upon fellow passengers and air crew alike. Well it isn’t.

“You are twins, you are both 34-years-old, intelligent and well educated women. You should both have known better than to behave in the way you did.”

He told Laura: “You were so drunk that you were incoherent, volatile and abusive. It is said that you described another passenger’s behaviour as vile. I think that epithet was perhaps more apposite to describe your own behaviour on this occasion.”

Noting Katie said she had not been intoxicated, the judge told her: “You had had so much that your behaviour was less inhibited than it should have been.” The pair were both given 12 month community orders.

Katie Butterworth was ordered to carry out 60 hours of unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days. Laura Butterworth was told to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.

Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency

Child poverty is soaring in Birmingham and without urgent change, will only get worse. Having worked with charities and community groups, BirminghamLive is campaigning for the following changes to start to turn the tide:

1. End the two-child benefit cap
2. Provide free school meals to every child in poverty
3. Create a city “aid bank” for baby and child essentials
4. Protect children’s and youth services
5. Create permanent, multi year Household Support Fund and give more Discretionary Housing grants
6. Set up child health and wellbeing hubs in our most deprived neighbourhoods
7. Appoint a Birmingham child poverty tsar
8. Provide free public travel for young people

You can see why in more detail here.

Read our full report Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency here.

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