A FORMER member of Aer Lingus cabin crew told an Employment Appeals Tribunal he thought a cannabis cookie he ate the night before a transatlantic flight was a chocolate chip biscuit.
While on board the flight, Miguel Saez Sanchez (32) complained to other crew he had lice and fleas crawling under his skin and photographers were taking pictures of him, the tribunal at his unfair dismissal hearing was told.
He had also taken a slimming pill, banned by Aer Lingus, and had four vodkas before eating the cookie in March 2009.
Mr Sanchez, of Dunboyne, Co Meath, was dismissed following a disciplinary hearing by Aer Lingus, which found his actions amounted to gross misconduct.
Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Sanchez said he arrived in San Francisco on March 15th, 2009, after working on a flight from Dublin. He took an onward flight to Los Angeles to stay with friends in Santa Monica. He spent the break going to the beach with his friends and on the 19th there was a party at his friends’ house. He had four vodkas and took a cookie, which was on the kitchen table.
“It seemed like a chocolate chip biscuit,” he said.
An hour later he felt unwell and told his friends what he had eaten. When they told him it contained “marijuana” he became very upset. He had only used the drug once before, 10 years earlier in Amsterdam, and it had a bad effect on him, he said.
He took a shower to try to counteract the effects of the drug, but while in the shower he became very paranoid and thought his friends were filming him. He went to bed at 11pm and caught a flight at 8.30am the next day from Los Angeles to San Francisco so he could report for the Dublin flight.
He told the tribunal he felt fine reporting for duty, but during take-off he was seated opposite two photographers and started to feel unwell.
He told his manager how he felt and she sent him to work at the back of the aircraft. After a short time, he told her he was unfit to work and she allowed him to “stand down”. He spent most of the remainder of the 10-hour flight in the crew rest area.
Retired senior cabin crew member Margaret Curran, who was managing the flight, told the tribunal she met Mr Sanchez at the boarding gate and he seemed a little tearful, but was otherwise fine.
On the flight, however, he became paranoid and told her two photographers were taking pictures of him and were Aer Lingus plants and that passengers were talking about him and leaving notes about him in the toilets.
He also told her his body was covered in lice and fleas and asked her to look at his face, saying they were crawling under his skin. At one stage he walked up to premier seating with his jacket on and a briefcase in his hand and a passenger remarked “that gentleman looks like he’s going somewhere”.
“He looked like he was getting off the flight,” Ms Curran said.
He initially denied he had taken any drugs, but then admitted he had the cookie, she said.
Cathy McGrady, counsel for Mr Sanchez, said Aer Lingus should have taken into account the surrounding circumstances and that he had taken cannabis “unwittingly” before dismissing him. When he realised the drug was affecting him he told his manager.
But counsel for Aer Lingus, Tom Mallon said his actions were “nothing short of folly”. The airline could not trust him with passenger safety again, he said.
The tribunal retired to consider its decision.
