JohnK, I respect your wise decision not to go further into this (as the guy has been charged and will be appearing in court) but I struggle to have sympathies for the actions of someone who may need help (mental illness, depression, personal struggles etc) when those actions place many others at risk and the kind of behaviour that was reported does place the plane at risk (and the pilots decision supports that).
I don't know what the answer is, but quite clearly, the reports are that he was drunk. If he was also on medication and also had other issues weighing him down, turps is the last think he should have been on and flying in that state is also a no-go. The only question I have, is who is responsible for assessing the ability of a pax to fly without placing an aircraft at risk?
A really difficult situation that started innocently by him being given 2 drinks during dinner service and then expecting to be able to order 2 drinks at once throughout the flight.
He questioned this double standard and it started to heat up. He thought he was being clever taking alcohol from the galley when he shouldn't but he could have been even more clever to start with by not harping on about ordering 2 drinks at once, being an Emirates customer and Qantas not having tabasco. He was not thinking clearly. Perhaps he panicked.
With each passing incident, spoken to by CSM, spoken to by AFP, stealing alcohol, spoken to by AFP again and admitting he was reaching breaking point you could see he was getting more agitated. Towards the end it was like Jekyll and Hyde. Friendly one minute and aggressive the next.
I know it is not acceptable. He should be responsible for his actions. But and there is a big but here that doesn't make sense to me. A normal person does not take several types of relaxants such as valium and mixes them with alcohol before and during the flight. Perhaps he was trying to knock himself out.
I think, actually more like know because I overheard, he has been in trouble before with police for similar incident. This is like a cry for help that is being ignored?