R.E.M guitarist Peter Buck was arrested Saturday (April 21) for allegedly assaulting two British Airways cabin crew members in the first class section of flight BA48 from Seattle to London, Scotland Yard spokesman Chris Cairns said.
Buck was met by police at Heathrow Airport Saturday morning around 11 a.m. after the British Airways flight crew radioed ahead that a first class passenger had assaulted members of the cabin crew and upended a trolley.
Buck, 44, was detained at the Heathrow police station Saturday, and was released on bail around 9:00 p.m. after being charged for common assault on the crew members, disobeying an aircraft commander, being drunk on an aircraft, threatening and abusive words and behavior, and “criminal damage to a quantity of crockery.”
Buck has been ordered to appear before Uxbridge Magistrates Court today (April 23).
R.E.M. is scheduled to play the South Africa Freedom Day Concert in London’s Trafalgar Square on April 29 for an anticipated audience of 30,000, including former South African president Nelson Mandela. The band releases its twelfth LP, “Reveal,” on May 15.