[naunga]

My non-professional opinion: He's off the plane.

And it's really nothing to do with what he said, it's how he said it. If he had walked down the jetway and jokingly said something like, "Geez I hope the pilots are sober", no harm no foul. A tasteless and inappropriate comment yes, but I'd shrug it off (and maybe make sure he doesn't get peanuts).

But, he's on the plane shouting. I might question his sobriety and I would definately question his ability to behave for the duration of the flight.

He might sue. If he did he probably wouldn't win. For the following reasons:

1. The gate agent already had witnessed him being angry he didn't get put into 1st class. So he had already established that he was not behaving correctly.

2. As the Captain I'm worried of what he'll do once we're in the air. So in effect I play the "safety of the flight card".

3. His actions could be interpreted as interferring with a flight crew, which if I'm not mistaken, is a Federal offense. So he may have criminal charges to deal with first.

I would get him off the plane and then make a PA announcement apologizing to the other passengers for the delay, and I might also go so far as to say, "we had an altercation with a passenger and he is being removed." This opens him up to lawsuits if someone say lost a business account or something because they got to their destination late. Of course he could sue the company for the same reason, but again I doubt any judge would allow the case to continue to trail.

Naunga