7-Oct-15 – After a night of drinking and escalating hostility, a drunk pilot attacked another pilot at a Michigan Avenue hotel two years ago, according to a lawsuit filed last Friday in United States District Court.

Martyn Baylay, a 54-year-old British citizen, at the time a Boeing 777 pilot for Etihad Airways, the second largest airline in United Arab Emirates, says on a layover in Chicago in mid-October 2013, he was out with three members of his flight crew, including 44-year-old Saravdeep Mann.

Mann drank a “significant amount” of alcohol, according to the complaint, in just a half-hour at The Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago and “a lot more” at Dublin’s Bar & Grill (left), located on North State Street one block north of Oak Street.

Later, back at the Westin, Mann showed up at Baylay’s hotel room at around midnight. Baylay thought Mann was there to apologize and retrieve a jacket he had left behind at the bar but instead, says Baylay, Mann hit him on the head with a decorative “bronze-bladed ornament” he had found in the hotel.

After Baylay fell to the floor, Mann, he says, hit him on the leg and told him, “I’m going to kill you, you fucking British bastard.”

Baylay escaped and was treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for a cut on his scalp and another head injury. Mann was arrested and charged with battery but missed a November 12, 2013, court date because, according to Baylay, the airline changed its flight schedule and pilot configuration “to get both Mann and Baylay out of the United States as soon as possible.”

Baylay (right), who lives in the United Kingdom and now works for an airline based in Spain, is suing Mann, Etihad Airways, the owner of the Westin, LaSalle Hotel Properties, the hotel’s operator, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., and Dublin’s Bar & Grill. He is seeking $75,000, claiming negligence, personal injury, and dram shop liability. A status hearing is scheduled for December 4.