Ex-EastEnders star Sid Owen thrown off flight after seat row as passenger shouts ‘Rickaay’
FORMER EastEnder Sid Owen was thrown off a flight after a rumpus over a reclined seat, delaying take-off for an hour.
The star, TV’s Ricky Butcher, said he was slapped by a man he ticked off for leaning back on him on the BA service in Dubai.
Both refused a steward’s offer to sit them apart and the extended spat kept the 200 other passengers waiting so they were marched off the Boeing 777.
As they left, one woman scolded the star by shrieking “Rickaay” — his soap wife Bianca’s shrill cry.
Sid, 46, who was flying home after a two-week holiday, was sat in economy in row 32 when the row blew up.
One passenger said: “We were at the gate when he came storming up the aisle shouting at a male steward, ‘Someone’s just slapped me’. He was extremely red, gesticulating and agitated.
“Apparently, the guy in front of him had reclined his seat and Sid Owen had objected. Then it turned into handbags.
“Everyone recognised him and was fed up at this little spat delaying us. We learned later that a steward offered to sit the two them at opposite ends of the plane but they were so indignant they refused.”
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Sid took the next BA flight to Heathrow and on arrival insisted: “I was assaulted.” He denied hitting the other passenger, an Arabic man in his 20s, or causing the delay. BA said crew had helped to “resolve a disagreement” between two passengers which delayed the flight.
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