Australian court fines unruly airplane passenger $5.5K for wasted fuel

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In a new tactic aimed at cracking down on disruptive airline passengers, a 33-year-old Australian man has been fined C$5,500 to pay for fuel dumped from the plane when his unruly behaviour forced its return to Perth. That’s on top of an C$8K fine imposed by the Perth Magistrates Court.

Australian Federal Police announced the penalties, as well as the man’s guilty plea last week. The incident dates to September 2023, police said. The man was charged with disorderly behaviour on an aircraft and failure to comply with safety instructions.

Police did not identify the man or the airline, but Australian news outlets have reported the incident occurred on a Jetstar flight, a low-cost carrier that is a subsidiary of Qantas. Allegedly, he was drunk and disruptive.

“The safety of our crew and customers is our first priority and we do not tolerate any disruptive or abusive behaviour on our aircraft,” a Jetstar spokesperson told Australia’s 9News. “We apologize to customers who were impacted by this disruption and thank them for their patience as our teams worked hard to provide overnight accommodation in Perth and replacement flights on Monday morning.”

After the flight landed back in Perth, the man was confronted by TV reporters. He told 9News that he would plead guilty because then he wouldn’t face prison. Flexing his right bicep, he said “Sorry, guys” to his fellow passengers.

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“All it is — is just a fine,” he said, laughing.

However, Australian Federal Police Superintendent Shona Davis said in a statement that the AFP was not treating the incident as a laughing matter.

“This incident should serve as a warning that criminal behaviour on board can come at a heavy cost to the offender,” she said. “It’s far simpler to obey the directions of airline staff than cause unnecessary issues, which can end up hitting you in the hip pocket.”

This is not the first time an airline has gone after a passenger for bad behaviour. In 2019, a British-based carrier said it had billed a passenger the equivalent of $106,000 for actions including trying to open plane doors during a flight.

In 2019, the International Air Transport Association called disruptive passengers “a significant problem” with one incident for every 1,053 flights reported in 2017.

Incidents spiked in the United States in 2021 and soared compared with the previous year — from about 1,000 to nearly 6,000 — as travellers clashed with flight crews over mask mandates and other issues.  According to IATA, there was one unruly incident reported for every 568 flights in 2022, an increase from one per 835 flights in 2021 — and a significant jump from 2017 numbers.

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Conrad Clifford, IATA’s former deputy director general, said in a 2023 news release that the trend was “worrying.”

“No one wants to stop people having a good time when they go on holiday — but we all have a responsibility to behave with respect for other passengers and the crew,” said Clifford. “For the sake of the majority, we make no apology for seeking to crack down on the bad behaviour of a tiny number of travellers who can make a flight very uncomfortable for everyone else.”

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says it has received nearly 900 reports about unruly passengers so far this year.

In 2021, the FAA announced that they would be introducing a zero-tolerance policy for fliers behaving badly on planes. That year, passengers were issued fines for a range of incidents on planes across the United States, including one passenger who attempted to enter the plane’s cockpit and had to be restrained and another who punched a flight attendant in the face, sending them to the hospital. The most serious cases of in-flight mischief are also reported to the Department of Justice.

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A highest individual penalty in the U.S., $40,823, was issued to a traveller on board a Southwest Air flight from San Jose, Calif., to San Diego, Calif.

The FAA alleges the passenger drank his own alcohol during the flight and continued to do so after a flight attendant told the passenger it was prohibited. The passenger then allegedly sexually assaulted the flight attendant. As the flight was descending into San Diego, the FAA says, he went into the toilet and smoked marijuana.

The flight crew asked law enforcement to meet the plane at the arrival gate. Police arrested the passenger for resisting arrest and public intoxication.

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