REM band member Peter Buck was today cleared of "ransacking" a first class cabin during an alleged drunken airborne rampage.
A jury at Isleworth Crown Court in west London found him not guilty of being drunk on a plane, assaulting an air stewardess and a cabin services director and of causing criminal damage to British Airways' property.
The 45-year old guitarist, who was accused of attacking cabin staff during hours of allegedly "loutish behaviour", blamed a pre-takeoff sleeping pill for transforming him into a mindless "automaton".
Buck sighed and wiped his brow as the jury, which had deliberated for five-and-a-half hours, gave its verdicts.
Buck - described by his wife, fellow celebrities and other friends as the "politest, gentlest" person imaginable - said the tablet turned most of the 10-hour Seattle to Heathrow flight last April into a mental blank.
PA
