I was on BA2152 BGI (Barbados)-LGW on Wednesday. The earlier flight to London was delayed four hours, so the lounge was very busy. There was a couple in one corner, probably in their late 50s, who were having a heated discussion - not disturbing anyone, but turning a few heads.

When we were called for boarding, there were two queues at the gate. I was parallel with the couple, in the other queue, and it rapidly became clear that the woman was completely wasted. She really had to try hard to stand still/take a step forward/move her carry on. At one point, she went to pick up her bag, missed the handles and stumbled forward a little, gently grabbing the passenger in front to steady herself. The other passenger did not take kindly to this and marched to the front of the queue to tell the boarding staff what had happened and that the woman should be offloaded!

When they got to the front, the agent asked whether she was OK. As she held on to the desk for dear life, the man explained that she was fine and that he would look after her. They were given the benefit of the doubt and sent on their way across the tarmac.

I was passing through the adjacent door at the same time as them and just caught the beginning of an exchange between them: "If you ever [expletive removed by mod]"

They only took about five steps before the agent came after them, took the boarding passes and escorted them back into the terminal, never to be seen again.

What is the policy on this? I guess you don't want her being sick all over the plane, but she wasn't disturbing anyone and would probably just have slept.

Was the other passenger out of order to tip off the authorities, just because the woman had stumbled into her? [There may have been more to it, but that's all I saw.]