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Tyrone Richards, Anton Clarke-Butcher, Omoneke Whyte, and Denzel Eduardo previously pleaded guilty to affray
Four men have been jailed after carrying out a "terrifying" tear gas attack that left victims vomiting blood at Heathrow Airport.
Tyrone Richards, 31, Anton Clarke-Butcher, 25, Omoneke Whyte, 31, and Denzel Eduardo, 29, previously pleaded guilty to affray at Isleworth Crown Court.
A total of 21 holidaymakers were injured during the attack, which took place outside Heathrow Terminal 3 on December 7.
The terminal was forced to close for several hours at 8am after three of the men, who were dressed in black and wearing face coverings, unleashed suspected "CS spray" into a lift.
The court heard that the men sprayed the substance in the face of one woman from very close range, which left her "coughing and choking".
There were two women and two men inside the lift at the time, with the female travellers having just arrived from Johannesburg on a British Airways flight.
After the lift reached the ground floor of the airport, the gas started leaking out and caused "difficulties for people, particularly at a Cafe Nero nearby".
The court was told that one worker at the coffee chain began vomiting blood after violently coughing.
The men then followed the two women to the airport taxi forecourt before stealing their suitcases.
The court heard that the defendants appeared to have had a "particular and determined interest" in the victim's luggage.
A Terminal 3 customer service agent said she "felt dizzy and like I was going to pass out" and described the attack as "terrifying".
Judge Kwame Inyundo, sentencing, said: "Individuals were targeted by you as a group and the violence used in the incident was serious and sustained."
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Appearing via video link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, Whyte and Eduardo were both sentenced to 23 months behind bars.
Also appearing from the London prison, Clarke-Butcher was sentenced to 21 months in jail.
And appearing from HMP Wayland via video link, Richards was handed down a jail term of 27 months.
CS gas is typically used by police officers in the UK as a temporary incapacitant spray to subdue people who are deemed to pose a risk.
Eduardo's lawyer, Genevieve Moss, insisted that the gas was sprayed "by the rival group" and claimed her client's asthma meant that it would have had a "dangerous impact" on him.
She said that Eduardo - who has 12 previous convictions - would “not agreed to take part in any activity involving such a substance”.
Rushnay Sikander, representing Whyte, said he was “very remorseful” and laid the blame on his “traumatic childhood”.
Shanda McAteer, representing Clarke-Butcher, insisted her client - who has 14 previous convictions - "genuinely expresses remorse".
Richards' lawyer, Patrick Harte, insisted his client was “not present when the first spray was released”, but was nonetheless “sorry to innocent bystanders suffering anguish”.
