A French national on a Delta flight who refused to refrain from smoking and clashed with flight attendants ultimately was handcuffed by air marshals and charged with assault upon landing in New York.
The man allegedly helped punctuate his lengthy in-flight confrontation by admonishing an air marshal in French, turning a phrase that generally translates to: “F*** you, I’m French!”
AFP says the incident began when the man is thought to have smoked several times in the lavatory of Delta Flight 83 from Nice to New York on Tuesday. He is accused of responding belligerently when the flight crew confronted him about smoking.
Citing a criminal complaint filed in New York, AFP says the man ” appeared intoxicated and smelled of cigarettes and alcohol.”
The complaint says the man, identified as Franck Lebrun, engaged in numerous confrontations — some physical — with the flight crew, prompting air marshals to get involved.
Again citing the complaint, AFP writes:
A federal air marshal on the plane intervened and “instructed Lebrun to return to his seat,” and two other air marshals confronted him later but Lebrun “continued to scream and yell expletives and then aggressively positioned himself toward one of the federal air marshals in a fighting stance.”
The man was part of a group en route to Honduras, but was detained in New York pending a court proceeding, according to the latest available press accounts.
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