Airline passenger must pay $6,000 for fuel cost after flight cancellation

About a year ago, a 32-year-old man on a flight from Perth to Sydney, Australia, exhibited “unruly” behavior that eventually prompted the captain to turn the plane back to Perth and cancel the trip. To do this, the plane had to offload the fuel that would have been needed for the four-hour journey. The passenger was arrested and charged as soon as the plane returned to its origin.

Now, after many months of court dates and back-and-forth, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have charged the errant man with the full cost of the plane’s spent fuel. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on board an aircraft and failure to comply with safety instructions.

Neither the passenger’s name nor the airline’s were released – nor were the details of his disruptive behaviour.

Fuel costs came to just over $5,800, or A$8,630, paid directly to the airline. In addition, Perth Magistrates Court, where the flight originated, fined him a further $6,000, bringing the total cost for the bad behavior to just $12,000.

Ideally, the fine and restitution order “will serve as a warning that criminal behavior on board can have a high cost to the offender,” Shona Davis, acting AFP superintendent, wrote in a statement. “It’s much easier to follow the instructions of the airline staff than to look for unnecessary problems that can end up hitting you in the hip pocket.”

The AFP, she added, “is committed to ensuring that all (travellers) have a safe journey from departure to arrival at their destination.”

Bad behavior on planes is nothing new, but after the pandemic, more passengers have forgotten their manners. “Incidents of unruly passengers” on flights increased by 47% between 2021 and 2022, according to an analysis by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Most of them came from non-conformity. Masking requirements were a constant pain point in the immediate post-pandemic era, but as the mandates were lifted, people misbehaved in other ways. The most common non-compliant actions, IATA found, were smoking and vaping, refusing to wear seat belts, bringing too much hand luggage on board and drinking too much alcohol.

Then there are the outbursts. This is mainly due to the frustration and stress typical of high-octane travel. The general exhaustion of a day’s travel can put even an even-keeled person “in a jittery, reactive state of the brain,” Frank Thewes, a therapist in New Jersey, recently explained. excited.

Between yelling at flight attendants, instigating physical altercations with other passengers and appearing drunk or disorderly, regulators have struggled to keep flights under control and on track. In January 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a zero-tolerance policy for disruptive aircraft behavior following a “disturbing” increase in reported cases.

But despite their efforts, the bad behavior continued; the worst of which go up the chain and often involve the Department of Justice, including the FBI. Most of these offenses include physical and sexual assault of crew members or other passengers – or attempts to breach the cockpit.

A particularly unruly passenger in 2021 was fined nearly $41,000 for bringing his own alcohol on a flight, sexually assaulting a flight attendant who told them to stop drinking, and then smoking weed in airplane bathroom. They were then arrested for both public intoxication and resisting arrest, the FAA said.

Last year, unruly air passengers paid a combined $7.5 million in fines. “Dangerous passengers put everyone at risk — and the Biden-Harris Administration has been clear that those who disrupt flights will be held accountable,” said US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Unruly travelers face heavy fines from the FAA and possible prosecution as well.”