Galina Rusanova drinks liquid soap and scuffles with crew

Galina Rusanova drinks liquid soap and scuffles with crew, Galina Rusanova pleaded guilty on Thursday to three counts in the US District Court in Bangor. The Bangor Daily News said she was sentenced to the 21 days she had already spent in jail. A charge of interference with a flight crew was dropped.

Prosecutors said the 54-year-old woman punched and kicked attendants on a United Airlines flight April 29. They say she tried to bite one while snapping “like a dog”.

The FBI said the Russian-born Londoner was on her way from Los Angeles, where she went to visit a man she met over the internet.

Her flight was diverted to Bangor.

Rusanova, 54, was charged with interference with flight crew and assault after the plane on which she was a passenger was diverted to Bangor in Maine during a flight from Los Angeles to London.

She was arrested the next morning after spending the night at Eastern Maine Medical Center for observation, according to court documents. “It’s typical of me. I sometimes do crazy things,” she is said to have told FBI agents after she was detained and questioned.

It had been claimed in court documents that, in addition to hitting, kicking and punching flight attendants who tried to control her, Rusanova fell to the floor where she tried to bite a flight attendant.

The trouble reportedly began about three hours into the United Airlines flight. Rusanova appeared very intoxicated, according to the court documents, had trouble getting into her seat and kicked the seat in front of her.

She fell asleep for a short time, flight attendants told police. When Rusanova awoke, however, she allegedly began moving about the cabin, bothering passengers and speaking incoherently.

Rusanova then drank a bottle of liquid hand soap that apparently came from a lavatory on the plane as a flight attendant looked on, according to the documents. Heavy drinkers from eastern Europe are known, in desperation, to drink perfume and liquid soap because they contain small quantities of alcohol.

Crew members managed to handcuff her to a crew member’s seat at the rear of the passenger compartment, according to the documents.

In an interview with FBI agents after her arrest on Thursday morning, Rusanova allegedly said she had travelled to California to meet a man she met over the internet. She also told investigators that, because she was afraid to fly, she took prescription pills and wine to calm herself.

On the flight, she reported taking sleeping pills and an antidepressant and drinking two or three small bottles of red wine once she had boarded the plane. She said she remembered going on and on about the seating and the quality of the wine, according to the documents, but little else of the flight.

On her personal website, Rusanova says that she was born in Siberia, Russia, but that she has been based in the UK for the last 20 years. She started painting seven years ago and her work has sold widely in London.

Two years ago, Rusanova was photographed with members of the Rothschild and Bonham family at the Ansbacher charity art auction in London. She is known for her portraits and her paintings of wildlife and pets.