What happens to a drunk guy that diverts a flight??

[ILSstud]

This weekend I took a trip to Dublin with my friend Shannon. Half way across the Atlantic this guy in coach who had obviously been drinking decides that he is "friends with Osama Bin Laden" and "is going to try and hijack the flight"....well we diverted to Bangor, Maine and the feds took care of it. 3 hrs later we were off to Ireland. My question is, what actually happens to this guy? I am sure he is in serious trouble, not to mention the pursor said he would be responsible for the cost of diverting the flight. Basically, sucks to be him I am sure!

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by ILSstud

This weekend I took a trip to Dublin with my friend Shannon. Half way across the Atlantic this guy in coach who had obviously been drinking decides that he is "friends with Osama Bin Laden" and "is going to try and hijack the flight"....well we diverted to Bangor, Maine and the feds took care of it. 3 hrs later we were off to Ireland. My question is, what actually happens to this guy? I am sure he is in serious trouble, not to mention the pursor said he would be responsible for the cost of diverting the flight. Basically, sucks to be him I am sure!

Alec, any of your fellow pax, give the dude "the big beat down?"

[tonyw]

Know what would stop this kind of nonsense from happening?

If airlines started filing civil lawsuits against jokers who did this for all the expenses they incurred due to these incidents.

How much money does it cost to divert an airplane, refuel it, and so on?

When jokers like this start having their paychecks garnished for the rest of their lives, it'll stop real fast.

[PGT]

If this happened to me (obviously a drunk guy playing around) I'd jump on him with my friend and start beating the crap out of him, free ass kicking.

[BobDDuck]

Southwest passengers killed a guy for doing that once. What ever, if you can't control yourself, don't drink.

[SmoothLanderJ]

Originally Posted by tonyw

Know what would stop this kind of nonsense from happening?

If airlines started filing civil lawsuits against jokers who did this for all the expenses they incurred due to these incidents.

How much money does it cost to divert an airplane, refuel it, and so on?

When jokers like this start having their paychecks garnished for the rest of their lives, it'll stop real fast.

Yep, I agree.....

[SIUav8er]

Im sure they do file lawsuits!

[esa17]

My understanding is once the Justice Dept is done with them their FICO score takes a HUGE nosedive. I'm all in favor of making it so they have to explain to little Suzie that she can't go to college because Daddy thought he was funny.

[DZERO]

Recent Disruptive Passenger Cases and Fines Assessed


DL1861    Smoking in LAV                                        $2,200

DL553    Smoking in LAV, 2nd Incident                       $3,300

DL490    Smoking in LAV                                          $4,000

DL1165    Intoxicated Passenger                               Pending

DL1827    Smoking in LAV                                        $3,300

DL79       Passenger abusive flight diverted
              to Manchester, England                            Pending

DL681      Passenger verbally abusive                        Pending

DL697      Smoking in LAV                                       $4,400

DL59        Passenger disturbance for alcohol              Pending

DL1068     Passenger refused to comply with
              Flt Attendant Instructions                        Pending

DL1880    Smoking in LAV                                       $2,200

DL71       Smoking in LAV                                       Pending

DL11       Passenger alcohol consumption                  $1,100

DL1288    Passenger smoking in lavatory                   $3,300

DL1217    Passenger smoking in lavatory                   $4,400

DL785      Passenger disruptive, 
              threatening flight crew                            $25,000

If you were the guy who was on DL785, you should probably get a second job. Dayum.

[madmax]

wow, most expensive smoke ever...

[Matt13C]

As the Captain/FO do you have the right to refuse entrance to people? Say a guy was visibly intoxicated or looked ill, could you say sorry pal catch a flight when you are cleaned up?

[Minnesota_Flyer]

§ 91.17 Alcohol or drugs.
(b) Except in an emergency, no pilot of a civil aircraft may allow a person who appears to be intoxicated or who demonstrates by manner or physical indications that the individual is under the influence of drugs (except a medical patient under proper care) to be carried in that aircraft.

I assume that this also applies to 121 pax ops.

[calcapt]

Originally Posted by Matt13C

As the Captain/FO do you have the right to refuse entrance to people? Say a guy was visibly intoxicated or looked ill, could you say sorry pal catch a flight when you are cleaned up?

Yes, and it would probably surprise you how often it happens. Conventional wisdom is that it's better to deal with smaller problems at the gate than the potential of much bigger problems in the air.

[BobDDuck]

I've had a gate agent come down the jetway and say "there's a guy up here who LOOKS drunk, but I don't know. Can we board him anyways?"

Err... No?

[Qgar]

You can't ASSUME someone is drunk! The term that is used is "appears to be intoxicated." Supposedly, we have no way of knowing if they are drunk or have some mental condition that makes them behave as they do. I dealt with a situation this weekend that was not fun. As luck would have it, he ended up BACK on one of my legs yesterday and looked at me like he knew me, but couldn't place me! Thank GOD!. After he left our flight Saturday, he got on a connection and word has it, they taxied back to the gate to dump his sorry ass off.

[Doug Taylor]

During recurrent a few years ago, my airline mentioned how aggressive they've been with successfully pursuing financial compensation from passengers that cause diversions because they're unable to behave.

That's going to be a very expensive vodka tonic for that passenger.

[ILSstud]

I emailed one of the flight attendants (a friend of mine working the flight)...and she said he was being fined close to 20,000 dollars for the diversion alone....yikes!...

[gator4798]

Sounds like a breathalyzer might be a good addition to a flight bag. Someone who looks drunk. Test them. Im sure it would be a problem if you chucked a guy because he looked drunk but wasent. But you might get in trouble for making them take the test.......Jeeze never mind this is getting too complicated. Maybe they will have it sorted by the time i start flying the big ones.

[Kristie]

maybe they should do random drug tests with pax too...depending on the situation

[Cptnchia]

Originally Posted by WildCougar

You can't ASSUME someone is drunk! The term that is used is "appears to be intoxicated." Supposedly, we have no way of knowing if they are drunk or have some mental condition that makes them behave as they do. I dealt with a situation this weekend that was not fun. As luck would have it, he ended up BACK on one of my legs yesterday and looked at me like he knew me, but couldn't place me! Thank GOD!. After he left our flight Saturday, he got on a connection and word has it, they taxied back to the gate to dump his sorry ass off.

Had a passenger who "appeared" to be drunk one time at ASA. The fact that he was verbally abusive to the FA and slurring his words, plus the strong smell of alcohol about him was a give away. The Horry County Deputy Sheriffs who came out to the plane handcuffed him and literally dragged him out of and down the steps of a Brasillia for intoxication in public and placed him face down on the ramp. They also arrested two others with him who tried to interfere and told the rest of the passengers that the next person who stood up or opened their mouth was going to be staying in MYR too.As far as I was concerned, the plane wasn't moving til he was gone. If for a second you think that a person is going to pose a risk, better to deal with it before it gets out of control. Remember the effects of alcohol on a human body are intensified as pressure in the cabin drops.When it was all said and done, he had bigger problems than just being drunk on a plane. Seems that the attempted assault on a police officer later in the terminal wasn't a big hit.

[Qgar]

The problem was that the other flight attendant and I didn't realize we were talking about 2 different "possibly" intoxicated pax. The CA spoke to one of them who was traveling with a friend and after that, he behaved. In the confusion, we didn't realize we weren't talking about different pax. Mine never should have been let on the plane. he was traveling with a much older woman, who was probably a relative but she was of no help. If the CA would have talked to this guy, I'm sure he would have kicked him off the plane. Thank God I don't have any ALB runs this month, or with my luck, I'd probably run into this clown again!

[mtsu_av8er]

Originally Posted by Kristie

maybe they should do random drug tests with pax too...depending on the situation

That would be horrible.

Unless they're also going to do random drug tests with people going to eat at ice cream stands and buying books at Borders . . . it's just targeting the wrong people, and invading privacy.

[Speed Pilot]

For the Airline that I work the Gate and Ramp for, all we need is the "appearance" of intoxication to refuse service. The Ticket counter agents should catch them if they are showing up to the airport drunk and deny them. If they get drunk in a bar at the airport then the gate agent should catch them. If the make it past that since we are a regional that boards using aircraft stairs the Ramp agents can still catch them or the flight crew. Sadly it's usually left up to the Flight Attendants to spot them because our Gate agents are afraid of confrontation. I was not blessed with such social moors and get called all the time to deal with these people. The funniest one was a 21 year old college student who couldn't even stand and when I told him he wasn't going on the flight he called his mom and handed the phone to me. When I told her what was happening she told me to refund the ticket she bought him and make him buy his own way back to school. I love responsible parents.

[Seggy]

In a real man's airplane (Beech 1900) one time when I was a FO we had one passenger going from BOS to RKD one day in April 2006

I board up the one passenger for the flight, he was not drunk at the time he sits down and takes his seat.

Halfway through the flight, he comes up to the cockpit (remember no cockpit door) sticks his head in with a half empty bottle of Jack in one hand and a Colt 45 in the other asking me and the Captain if we wanted a drink.

[JA Yawd Bwoy]

I wonder if it is fear of flying why dumb people binge before flying?