British Airways flight attendants claimed they were mugged in Brazil, leading to a flight cancellation that stranded hundreds of passengers and cost the company thousands of dollars. Turns out they may have simply engaged in a night of drinking and debauchery.
Brazilian Police Claim British Airways Feigned Robbery To Avoid Accountability For Night Of Drinking And Drug Use
BA248 from Rio de Janeiro (GIG) to London (LHR) was canceled on September 6, 2023 after three crew members reported they were robbed…twice. According to initial reports, the crew members were taken by taxi to a gas station in Penha, a rough area of Rio’s North Zone, where they were robbed.
One of their phones was hidden and they used that to summon an Uber driver. But while enroute to the hotel, they were robbed again by a guy on a motorcycle and the last phone was taken.
Meanwhile, a third British Airways cabin crew member claimed he was out for a drink in Pedra do Sal, went to use the bathroom, and woke up on the street unaware of what had happened.
Police have now conducted an investigation using surveillance camera footage and local interviews and concluded that all three were lying per local media outlet G1. Instead, police allege the flight attendants had engaged in a night of heavy drinking and drug use and tried to cover it up by claiming they had been robbed in order to protect their jobs.
Surveillance camera shows two of the flight attendants talking and enjoying drinks for two hours in the middle of the night in the area where they claimed they were mugged and phones were stolen. This happened after the alleged incident.
Investigators in Brazil claim that while one of their phones was stolen, they were never mugged.
Meanwhile, the third British Airways cabin crew member apparently drank so heavily he blacked out and was revived by a Good Samaritan, a construction worker who reported the flight attendant had a white substance resembling cocaine with him.
Danielle Bullus, an assistant police chief, claimed:
“The investigation shows that they didn’t tell the truth. They didn’t tell what actually happened that morning. They created these stories to try to probably justify inappropriate behavior outside the company’s rules. But we found that there was a theft of a cell phone of the duo that was in Vaz Lobo.”
Patricia Alemany, Head of the Special Tourism Support Police, claimed:
“What is surprising is how a crew that has such an important role spends the whole night drinking and using drugs, knowing that the next day they would have the responsibility of taking care of dozens of people who would travel for hours.”
British Airways has said this matter is a police matter, but oddly added that these three were not scheduled to work the flight to London on September 6th (though failed to explain, then, why it was canceled).
CONCLUSION
After the events in South Africa in which a pilot was accused of snorting cocaine off the chest of a prostitute after a drug and alcohol-fueled evening, I would have thought crew members would show a bit more restraint, but according to Brazilian police, three flight attendants lied about being robbed and mugged to cover up a night of heavy drinking and drug use.
The three cabin crew members are now back in London…but may soon be be persona non grata in Brazil.
image: released by police
This may explain the pathetic and indifferent service on BA.
No, it’s always like that!
@Matthew: your translation is good but there is more to the story. The guy actually went to one of the most dangerous slums in Rio to buy drugs and told in the hospital that he spent the night with two unknown women heavily drinking and consuming drugs. You should have posted the picture of the scumbags here. They look the type of people that will definitely “be there for your safety”. They are lucky to be alive, not sure how their asses felt after that long night though. LOL!
They pulled a Ryan Lochte
Indeed, my thoughts exactly; and, we all know how that turned out… Lochte is a has been and forgotten whereas he should have been a swimming legend.
The opening and closing paragraphs of this article are confusing as is the sources they were attributed from that both claim that British Airways delayed the flight due to the alleged robbery, but yet BA says the crew wasn’t scheduled to work it. Not Matt’s fault in that the source materials themselves are confusing.
What parts don’t make sense? I have read the articles published by many news in Brazil. None mention why the flight was cancelled and none mention if the crew was supposed to work on that flight. This is what the news are sharing:
Crew claims they were robbed twice while in Rio which seems very stressful so I am assuming the crew used that excuse to tell BA they were not in physical or phycological conditions to work on that flight. However, through a large investigation as explained by Matthew, the crew lied. Instead of spending the time in Rio resting in their hotel to get ready to fly back to London, they spent their time consuming alcohol and heavy drugs. While passed out, one had indeed had the cell phone stolen. Now, the robbery was not the reason they were not fit to work.
Look, Rio is not a safe place to put it in a nice way. However, most of the cases you see with foreign people only happen because they look after trouble. The news bring back the case of the US Olympic swimmer that told everyone he had been mugged in Rio and the truth was he spent the night partying and consuming alcohol and that was the reason he was trashed. I wonder what the rules are for airline crews. Are they on “vacation” between flights in a foreign country? Aren’t they supposed to rest so they can be ready to work again? I mean, there is a minimum expectation that when you are in a city outside your home town because you are working, you are “working”. You may not be working on the plane but the airline is paying hotel for you to rest and get ready to work again. You should not be partying, consuming alcohol and drugs just because you are not working on the plane, right? How can you be fit to work on a flight back if you are trashed, did rest and spent your time between flights consuming alcohol and drugs?
With the cost of living in London and the salaries that BA are paying, I reckon that a good proportion of their crew are mostly in the job for the travel perks (whether it’s free travel or paid for longhaul layovers). It’s unrealistic to expect them to refrain from a bit of partying when off-duty and, although getting hammered and then lying about it should definitely have disciplinary consequences, the airline itself systematically lies to its pax about their 261 rights, therefore it may well be less strict than the likes of Lufthansa might have been (and that’s something that makes me a bit less grumpy about having to fly LH and SN and their lousy products on a semi-regular basis)
This makes no sense. If they weren’t scheduled to work the flight that was canceled why did they create this whole fictitious scenario? Is BA lying to cover up any liability to affected passengers? I’m confused.
This is really shameful by the BA crew. Granted you can do whatever you want on your off time but if your off time affects your work, then it’s no excuse. If I mess myself up during my off time and come to work like that I would not be able to do my duties and be fired. I’ve never flown BA and never will.
Ok, I just posted a question above. Can you really whatever you want on your off time? That is not supposed to be vacation. It is supposed to be “work” since the only reason you are there in a foreign country is because you have to rest to be ready to work again. Thus, while I agree you can probably go sightseeing and have a nice meal, you are not supposed to be partying, using alcohol and drugs. You are technically working there because resting to be ready to fly back is part of your work.
@Al, I am confident your pre-tax work income is higher than 3.5% of the average house price in your area- BA cabin crew start in £23k and the average house price in London is £720k. I don’t think you could have higher expectations in the circumstances. (Pilots are a different story, of course)
*start at
I don’t understand your argument– what exactly are you saying– because the FAs would not be high earners in the city that the airline is headquartered in that it is understandable that they have alcohol and drug problems?
People can be expected to not have alcohol and drug problems even if they work in a city that has an issue with housing affordability.
This metric that you’re pushing of comparing starting salary with average house price seems flawed to begin with (if it’s starting salary, why isn’t it starting house price? or average salary vs average price) and beyond that there is the issue of commuting into the city to work. Is there some reasonable evidence to suggest that the metric of starting salary/house price predicts bad behavior?
What I am saying is that the pay in these roles is so low that few people take the job seriously- if they get fired, they can walk into a higher paying job the next day. I am not saying that their conduct is justified. Had I not been afraid of being accused of speciesism, I might have said that when you pay peanuts, you tend to get monkeys.
Great BA, three for three:
– flight deck member went running outside a secure area and got stabbed
– pilot snorted cocaine off the chest of a woman and bragged about it
– indulgent crew members having a time of their life (and end of their career) in Rio
You guys failed to hire the Alaska airlines pilot with magic mushrooms and the DL pilot with a gun in the cockpit.
Could of had a Royal Flush!!
I felt safer crossing from NYC to Southampton on the Queen Mary II while outrunning two tropical storms in the North Atlantic during the peak of the hurricane season.