Self-Important Morons Fined For Abusing British Airways Crew

Three people have just been fined for their behavior on a British Airways flight earlier this year, as reported by The Daily Mail. I don’t even want to call them “reality stars” because that’s probably giving them too much credit, but my gosh these people sound insufferable.

Awful behavior on a British Airways flight

On February 7, 2021, three people were traveling on a British Airways flight from Miami to London. They were returning from the Turks & Caicos, where they had filmed the second season of Netflix’s “Too Hot To Handle” show, which is a dating show of sorts (I’ll admit that I watched the first season — it was so bad that it was almost good).

The three people in question are 29-year-old Matthew Mahwinney, 28-year-old Harry Johnson (lol, given the context of this), and 23-year-old Beaux Greenslade. For what it’s worth, we’re apparently supposed to care who Mahwinney is, because his mother served as Attorney General in the UK between 2007 and 2010, and therefore he thinks that entitles him to act however he’d like.

So, what exactly happened? The trio had apparently been downing margaritas before their flight, and during the flight Johnson and Greenslade were “kissing and behaving intimately.”  and it looked like they were about to take it to the next level. They were also refusing to wear their face masks.

Cabin crew asked them to tone down their behavior, and also made the decision to stop serving them alcohol, which is where the behavior allegedly got really bad:

• Mahwinney told one of the flight attendants “go and f****** look up who my mum is – Baroness Scotland, I’m a gold card holder – go and get me a drink”
• Mahwinney received a written warning from the captain, and threw it across the cabin
• Mahwinney climbed into the aisle and performed press-ups while the seatbelt sign was on
• Greenslade told the flight attendant “take my f***** tray away, don’t you know I’m a f***** secretary, I will take your job away from you”
• When a passenger asked Greenslade to stop abusing the crew, she replied “shut up you f****** c***”
• Greenslade said “f*** these people and f*** the captain”
• Greenslade told the flight attendants “look at me when I am talking to you,” and told everyone else how rude she thought the crew was
• When Greenslade was told that the police would be meeting the flight, she replied “call the police, they won’t f****** do anything”
• Johnson called the flight attendant a “b****” when he received a letter saying he wouldn’t be served any more alcohol

Each person ordered to pay £2,835

The trio were charged with failing to obey lawful commands on a plane, and using threatening, abusive, and insulting words.

Mahwinney apologized in a letter to the court, saying he was “deeply ashamed” of his behavior:

“This is the most shameful and embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me. I make no attempt to excuse what happened.”

It’s also claimed that he had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills before taking part in the show, which could have impacted his behavior.

The attorney representing Johnson and Greenslade stated the following:

‘This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and you are quite right when you say that they had this sense of entitlement that they probably never had before as a result of the TV programme.

It was youth, naivety and stupidity – they’ve involved themselves (in the row) and made it much worse by escalating it into a group situation. They are aware that things are not going to be easy in relation to the publicity. This behaviour on any view is wholly out of character, and in my submission that should be born in mind.”

During her ruling, the judge said the following about the behavior (frankly it seems like she’s making excuses for them):

“You were at the end of a prolonged period of social confinement and that might have had some psychological impact on you and might have been the reason each of you behaved out of character.

‘You each acted with a profound sense of entitlement, you each acted without any consideration for the crew or the job they had to do.”

Each defendant was ordered to pay £2,835, including:

• A £1,500 fine
• £500 to each of the two cabin crew they had been abusive towards
• A victim surcharge of £150 and £85
• A further £100 for refusing to put on masks when told to do so

I find it interesting that the cabin crew directly are getting money from the people who mistreated them — that’s a fun twist, and well deserved, if you ask me.

Bottom line

Three people who had just finished filming a reality TV show acted horribly on a British Airways flight from Miami to London. They thought they were above the law, but clearly weren’t, and have now each been forced to pay £2,835.

While we all act out of character sometimes, these weren’t children (I don’t buy the “youth” argument when you’re 29), and this kind of behavior doesn’t come out of nowhere. Sure, people might act silly if they’re drunk, but this level of abuse towards others, including name-calling and name-dropping, clearly came from somewhere.

Hopefully they learned their lesson…