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The recreational activities of airline staff seem to be getting out of control.

Following the exploits of a pilot who tried to shut off the engines of an aeroplane mid-air while zonked on mushrooms and the flight that had to be delayed while they replaced a pilot who had a wild coke/sex party a few hours before departing, there are now reports that a BA crew who claimed to have been mugged in Brazil actually went out on a bender instead, resulting in the cancelled flight.

The newest contenders for ‘Crew of the Year’ made headlines last week after claiming that they had been the victims of a robbery during their layover in Rio de Janeiro. The alleged muggings caused a flight to be cancelled after BA were unable to arrange for an alternate crew on short notice.

A police investigation has now reportedly found that they “did not tell the truth and didn’t say what actually happened that morning”. According to local media sources, the Special Tourism Support Police (Deat) believes the crew members made up the robbery story to avoid punishment from British Airways. Busted!

“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,” Patricia Alemany, head of Deat, told Brazilian newspapers.

The reportedly ‘fabricated’ mugging occurred minutes after the crew members hired a taxi and were transported to an abandoned petrol station in Vaz Lobo, where they were apparently robbed.

However, authorities have now stated that the team lost their phones after a night of heavy drinking, before inventing the heist to cover their tracks. CCTV footage from the night allegedly shows the three crew members out and about in Rio de Janeiro around 4:50 AM.

“The crew had been on an overnight stay in the city and were heading back to their lodgings in Copacabana before they were due to operate a flight home to Britain the next day”, according to local media.

The crew were allegedly mugged in Pedra do Sal by three men who followed them, but fortunately, they managed to ‘hide a phone from the robbers’, which they then used to call another taxi. They went on to claim that on their way back to their lodging, they were robbed again, this time by a man on a motorbike, who then stole the third phone.

Meanwhile, a third crew member claimed to have gone drinking in Pedra do Sal where he met a woman at a pub. He claimed to have gone to the toilet and returned to take a sip of his drink. He stated he had no recall of what happened after that, until he awoke lying in the middle of a road, thereby implying his drink had been spiked.

Police suspect the third crew member became separated from his colleagues owing to ‘excessive drinking’ to the point of unconsciousness. Construction workers eventually had to revive the man in the street, and an ambulance was called. While waiting for it, the man allegedly had ‘white powder’ all over him, which the police determined to be cocaine.

After being brought to the hospital, the man acknowledged spending the night drinking and doing drugs with two ladies.

A BA representative added “The crew members were not due to operate a flight the next day as alleged”, before directing any further queries to local police.

Rough night in Rio by the sound of it. You can’t take airline staff anywhere these days.

[source:dailymail]