Toronto TV host Colleen Walsh arrested for endangering the safety of an aircraft (UPDATE)

Update: 1/25/10

Around 10:10 a.m. E/T former television host Colleen Walsh posted this apology on the Greenwich Diva blog to Mr. Stan Harrington.

In accordance to my probation, I have to make an apology to Stan Harrington.
I am complying with the instructions of Judge Brown, who I think is one of the most decent, wisest Judges ever. He listened to 3 days of testimony from people who’s only evidence was what they perceived… and when I finally got to testify with only the facts, he made his ruling which I respect.
After Mr. Harrington’s Victim impact statement, asking that there be some way to take the comments off the internet, Judge Brown in his wise ability realized that probably could not happen in this day of internet communication.
I was the one who suggested perhaps I could make a public apology to Stan Harrington for what he had to endure after my comments that he was a weak pathetic man and that he would ultimately be known as the man who was beat up on a plane by a girl.
So for that Mr. Harrington I am sorry.
but you should look at the comments made about me on all the other websites, some 200 comments after this ordeal on the CBC site alone.
So Mr. Harrington, I apologize that your children or grandchildren might have had to read those comments, but you should try to understand what my family has had to endure with the comments made about me.
Mr. Harrington, had you not made such a big deal about the situation, none of this would ever have occured.
I take responsibility for my part and again, I am sorry.
I hope that we can both move on with our lives and be kinder gentler people in our futures.
Sincerely,
Colleen Walsh

Walsh stated in her apology that she was the one who suggested to the judge that she should make the public apology to Harrington.

Is this a sincere apology or is Ms. Walsh trying to save what is left of her career?

Update: 1/20/10

A Newfoundlander judge ordered former Toronto TV host Colleen Walsh to apologize to Stan Harrington for the “hurtful” words she used to describe him on the Greenwich Diva blog January 1, 2010.

On the Greenwich Diva blog Walsh called Harrington “weak” and said “he probably has been beaten up by girls…he’s certainly being beaten up by his wife.”

Harrington, 67, testified in a Canada courtroom on Monday that Walsh had hit him on the head after he asked her to sit down while they were on a transatlantic Air Canada flight.

Walsh’s unruly behavior occurred on March 31, after an Air Canada flight from London, England to Toronto was forced to divert to St. John’s for a medical emergency after a female passenger sitting next to her became ill.

An Air Canada staff testified that Walsh became “unruly” about the unscheduled stop and she refused to return to her seat after being told by the flight crew that the first aid assistance she offered to the sick passenger was not needed.

Today in the courtroom Walsh, who was on trial for obstructing the operation of an aircraft and causing a disturbance, told the court she was in a state of menopausal exhaustion on the day in question.

“I had been up for 30 hours and I was on hormone replacement therapy,” Walsh told provincial court Judge Greg Brown. “I was in a panic.”

The officer who removed Walsh from the aircraft testified that Walsh told him that she wishes the plane would just “blow up.” 

In the judge only trial that ended on Wednesday, Judge Brown found Walsh, 49, guilty and fined her $400 for assault and $2,000 for breaching the federal Aeronautics Act and he ordered her to leave a public apology for Harrington on the Greenwich Diva blog.

Update: 1/20/10

Colleen Walsh testified Tuesday that she was in a state of menopausal exhaustion on March 31.

She said the combination of being on hormone replacement therapy and not having slept for 30 hours, caused her to act the way she did.

Update: 1/19/10

Attorneys for Colleen Walsh, the former television host of Structures, a Canadian architecture show, told a court yesterday that a medical emergency caused her to become ballistic on a transatlantic flight from London to Toronto on March 31, 2009.

Guy Marion, an Air Canada service director described to the court on Monday how he and other airline staff ordered Walsh, 49, to return to her seat after a passenger sitting next to her lost then regained consciousness.

Pointing to Walsh in the courtroom he said, “She was told that her help wasn’t needed.  We had to inform her a few times to return to her seat.”

Marion testified how after the flight was forced to land in St. John’s N.L, Walsh became angry. “You sensed that she wasn’t happy with the fact that we had landed in St. John’s.  She was agitated and didn’t comply with our demand that she go back and sit down.”

He said while the plane was on the tarmac “Walsh got into it with another passenger and started cursing,” causing several passengers to get involved.

A 67-year-old passenger named Stan Harrington, who was seated a few seats behind Walsh, testified that the television host was the only passenger standing when a flight attendant asked her to be seated. 

Harrington said that she refused to comply.

Walsh, who had pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, obstructing the operation of an aircraft and causing a disturbance, is scheduled to appear in court today for day two of her trial.

It is alleged that Walsh was intoxicated during the flight.

Update: 7/30/09

Through her lawyer Lori Marshall, Toronto TV host Colleen Walsh pleaded not guilty to an alleged air rage on Air Canada last April.A trial date has been set for January 18, 2010

Original story

Toronto TV host, Colleen Walsh, appeared in a courtroom yesterday on charges related to an air rage incident on an Air Canada flight from London to Toronto.

The 48-year-old former host of Structures, an architecture and history show, was charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft, unlawful obstruction and using obscene language.

Authorities were called to St. John’s airport late Tuesday afternoon over an “unruly passenger.”

When they arrived, they found an unruly and intoxicated Walsh.

Walsh, who spent the night in jail, was on a flight from London to Toronto, but the flight was diverted to St. John’s.

She was released from jail on $2,500 bail