Bust-up downs holiday jet

**NikkiJayne** Sat Sep 22, 2012 10:56 pm

A HOLIDAY jet was forced to make a £35,000 unscheduled landing after a teenager’s stepdad objected to him wearing his HOOD UP.
Fuming David Laughton, 39, scuffled with his 17-year-old lad Lee as their bickering erupted into a full-blown bust-up three hours into the flight to the Canary Isles.
The captain diverted to Portugal as appalled passengers watched cabin crew battling in vain to calm the pair at 36,000ft. Police were waiting as the Lanzarote-bound Boeing 737 from Newcastle with 200 passengers on board touched down in Porto.
The entire family of five — including younger boys Dylan, 14, Henry, three, and David’s partner Sarah, 28 — were escorted off by cops and quizzed.
Eventually they were told no further action would be taken.
The seething stepdad then DUMPED Lee at the airport as he shelled out £1,500 on another flight to Lanzarote for the rest of them to relax for two weeks without the teen.
The penniless lad was stranded there for 24 hours until the Foreign Office stepped in and took him to the British consulate — where he spent a further two days. Finally officials managed to arrange for him to be flown home to his mum Jannine, 36, with whom he lives in Islington, North London.
Jannine, who had to pay £200 for the teenager’s flight back, complained last night: “To leave Lee all by himself in a foreign country is appalling.”
Speaking in Lanzarote, her ex David — an asbestos removal worker from Hartlepool, — admitted the squabble with his stepson was trivial.
He said they had argued when Lee put his hood up while they were on the plane. David added: “I am sorry the plane was diverted and can understand why that action was taken.” Thomson Airways, which was left with a £35,000 bill for the unscheduled stop, has banned him and his family from the return flight to Newcastle.
The airline apologised to the other holidaymakers who spent an hour on the tarmac in Porto waiting to take off again. But a spokesman stressed: “Safety is our first priority. We operate a zero tolerance policy to disruptive behaviour.”

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