A top American skier has been kicked off the US Ski Team – ending his dream of representing his country at the 2014 Winter Olympics – after becoming so drunk in flight that he allegedly urinated over a sleeping 11-year-old girl instead of attending the toilet.
Chaos erupted on the overnight JetBlue flight after the incident. Port Authority police at New York’s Kennedy Airport detained the ski star on arrival. The New York Post identified the urinator as Robert Vietze, 18, who had flown from Portland, Oregon.
The incident has certain similarities with the infamous case of the Jetstar urinator, a drunken New Zealand passenger who several weeks ago urinated over other passengers and into the aisle during a flight from Auckland to Singapore. Although Jetstar allowed the culprit to walk free with just a warning, the urinator’s identity leaked out. Michael Aitken, son of the coach of New Zealand’s Silver Ferns netball team, later apologised for his actions.
According to the New York Post, the JetBlue incident was worse. Horrified passengers saw the skier, who is over 193cm tall, lurch from his seat, totter down the aisle and begin to urinate over the girl. The girl’s father intervened and appeared about to thump Vietze. Flight attendants had to separate the pair and haul Vietze to the back of the plane.
Just as that hubbub died down, another passenger, who had complained of chest pains, was seized by a bout of uncontrollable vomiting.
“We have a medical emergency,” the pilot declared over the public address system, asking whether a doctor or nurse was aboard.
Crew who had worked with liquid soap to clean up the urine and comfort the girl had to rush elsewhere with the liquid soap after the vomiting emergency began.
On arrival in New York, the ill passenger received medical help and Vietze was issued a federal summons for indecent exposure, which carries a sentence of up to a year in jail. He reportedly told police he had consumed eight alcoholic drinks.
The US Ski and Snowboard Association later dismissed Vietze from the team.
Written by Peter Needham
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