Mr. Notar’s Wild Ride

What would normally be considered a routine flight from Los Angeles to New York turned out to be anything but routine for Nobu restaurant chain co-owner, Richie Notar on Monday night. In fact, it was likely one of his more embarrassing moments during his extensive career of jet-setting and traveling the skies.

According to a fellow passenger aboard the American Airlines flight, somewhere above Kansas, Notar began behaving wildly, apparently from a problematic mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills. Notar boarded the plane seemingly fine, friendly to the other passengers, but midway into the flight, his behavior became erratic, three women actually having to be moved to first class because of his reported inappropriate hand gestures. Talk about a wild ride Mr. Notar! Note to self: do not mix these two ingredients while trapped in the sky with zero possible way to escape embarrassment or worse, legal action.

Notar was crazily flailing his arms in the air while shouting loudly and obviously disturbing the rest of the passengers and crew. At one point, a gentleman even took it upon himself to try and calm him down but nothing worked, well, except for the flex cuffs, though at first he tried to bite them off. That must have been one strong cocktail he had. Biting off flex cuffs? Who did he think he was, a savaged beast? Perhaps for him it was all a dream, a very disturbing, out-of-his-character, embarrassing dream. Once the plane landed at JFK airport, Notar was escorted off the flight by three NYPD police officers but was eventually released. Two complaints were filed on his behalf but both ended up being dropped, a somewhat stroke of luck amidst an otherwise nightmarish chain of events.

According to Notar, he had taken a sleeping pill and downed a glass of wine and was “out for the count.” Well, I guess that’s one way to put it, though I could think of a few others. “I just remember sleeping,” he says. “I guess I have to be more careful, or there go my upgrades.” Yeah, I’d say so.

Via: NY Post