A woman accused of trying to open a plane door mid-flight has admitted endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Two RAF fighter jets were scrambled to meet the Jet2 flight - which was heading to Dalaman, Turkey - and escort it back to Stansted on 22 June.

Chloe Haines, 26, was arrested by Essex Police when it landed.

She appeared before Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday where she also pleaded guilty to assaulting cabin crew member Charley Coombe, who claimed she suffered scratches as she tried to prevent Haines from opening the door.

Haines denied a charge of drunkenness on an aircraft.


Her barrister, Oliver Saxby, said there was "no question that she was drunk" - but that the charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft was the "more serious alternative".

The defendant wept throughout the hearing.

Mr Saxby told the court that his client was a "troubled young person with a number of serious issues".

Image: The Jet2 flight was heading to Dalaman, Turkey. File pic

He added: "Seventeen days before this incident, she had been sentenced to a community order for not dissimilar offences, not committed in the air but with alcohol and a loss of control.

"That order had not had a chance to bite."

He continued that "to her credit" - Haines had "engaged more fully with Alcoholics Anonymous".

Mr Saxby asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, to give the judge "more information on her current situation" - claiming that the offence had happened "some six months or so ago".

Bailing Haines, to return to the court on 24 January, the judge warned that "all sentencing options remain open".

Her bail conditions include not travelling from any UK airport.