Drunk French Air Traveler Reinforces Terrible Stereotype About French Citizens

In what will only enforce the belief that some French citizens are saddled with an insufferable insouciance, federal air marshals had to subdue an intoxicated man flying to New York from Nice when he repeatedly shoved a female flight attendant who caught him smoking in the plane’s bathroom.

After being handcuffed, suspect Franck Lebrun announced, “I’m French, fuck you!”

The disruption aboard a January 8 Delta Air Lines flight is detailed in a federal criminal complaint charging Lebrun with interfering with a flight crew member. According to FBI Agent Janet Ambrisco, during the flight Lebrun, 34, purchased a one-liter bottle of Baileys Irish Crème liquor and a mini bottle of liquor. The bottle of Baileys, only one-fourth filled, was found in his carry-on baggage.

When Lebrun--screaming, yelling, and smelling of “cigarettes and alcohol”--got into a fighting stance opposite an air marshal (one of three on the transatlantic flight), he was handcuffed and moved to the rear of the airplane. During the trip, Ambrisco noted, Lebrun had been “speaking in a confrontational manner using expletives in English and made other comments in French.”

Lebrun was scheduled for a bail hearing this morning in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.