Air Astana alcohol control: family denied boarding

Air Astana did not let a whole family onboard due to “destructive” behavior of the father, Tengrinews reports citing Lada.kz. On February 22, Almat and Alisa Mukhamedin along with their three children were boarding an airplane to Almaty when a flight attendant asked them to leave because the husband was drunk. “Right before our flight we were saying goodbyes to our friends and my husband had a drink. He was not drunk and staggering, but behaved properly,” Alisa Mukhamedin said. In her words, even a policeman who examined her husband and said that he did not pose any threat to other passengers could not convince the righteous flight attendant. “The flight attendant did not listen to him (policemen). She did not call the captain who we wanted to talk to. Also, she ignored requests of other passengers to let our family in. In the end, she called for security guards that took my husband away as some criminal. It took place right in front of our children’s eyes. The three could not stop crying because they were scared,” the mother said. The Mukhamedin family believes there were no good reasons for them to be denied the right to board the plane and they want the flight attendant to take responsibility for her actions. Right after the unfortunate incident, Almat Mukhamedin took a medical test that showed that he was in a state of mild intoxication with 0.5ppm equal to 2 bottles of beer. The head office of Air Astana commented on the incident. Mukhamedin, according to the airlines company, was not only drunk, but also aggressive and destructive. The company added that passengers are allowed to board an airplane after drinking alcohol, but they might be denied boarding if they pose danger or cannot keep footing. But probably, juts to be safe it is better not to drink at all?