I can’t speak of duty free alcohol bought on board but you are allowed to drink your own alcohol, certainly that bought in advance at the airport.

Some airlines say it is not allowed, some even say it is legally not allowed in the UK but that is tosh; so long as you’re not drunk and have been specifically told you can’t drink it, there are no rules against drinking your own alcohol on BA (and other UK aircraft) at least.

they do allow you to bring your own drinks. The only instances I have seen BA not allow it is on a Cityflyer flight from man-IBZ

I believe it is though illegal to disobey a lawful order given by the crew. Thus I assume if the crew had instructed the passengers to stop drinking and hand over any alcohol they had and the passengers refused then they could have been prosecuted.

From ont the report it does sound as if they were out of control and it reflects very poorly on BA this appears to have been handled badly.

Really ?

What sort of “problem” was he, exactly ?

A group of passengers are ill-behaved during a flight ; their unruly activity includes forcefully wrestling a bottle of alcohol from a crew member, and refusal to be seated for landing.
And yet you consider someone travelling on that same flight, in consequent fear for his safety, and who legitimately raised concerns to the airline, to be a “problem passenger”

@ Worcester : what a fascinating insight into HIDDY-world, thanks.

I shall read any further posts from a whole new perspective

I’m sure there was a very recent similar scenario to this...Flight 2552 was forced to an emergency landing at 6pm at LGW. Not much more is said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-45013517

Actually the law states that it is illegal to disobey a legal order issued by the aircraft commander. It is also illegal to be drunk onboard an aircraft but unlike drink driving or drink flying there is no definition of “drunk” in the ANO. Any “order” issued by the crew is done so on borrowed authority unless it is a direct repetition of an order issued by the aircraft commander. Have you ever considered why the written warnings have to be signed by the aircraft commander? It is a simple way for the aircraft commander to directly issue a specific and traceable, not he said she said, order to an individual. Further transgression of that order is then a criminal act and can be dealt with as such. Note I do mean criminal not illegal. The powers issued to the aircraft commander, some of which essentially derive from maritime laws are extensive and quite arbitrary, but they are only issued to the aircraft commander, so all power aboard derives from the commander and the crew have no individual power to issue arbitrary orders on their own recognisance. That is why their derived authority is carefully laid down within the Ops Manual, anything else has to be relayed to the commander and their decision then becomes law.