Leave him there to rot
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Jaglover

Original Poster:

46,814 posts

265 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
Telegraph said:
Airbus pilot maroons drunken passenger on desert island
By Nigel Bunyan
(Filed: 30/12/2005)

A drunken holidaymaker has been dumped on a desert island after launching a foul-mouthed tirade at the crew of a passenger jet.

The unwilling Robinson Crusoe will only be able to leave Porto Santo, a tiny patch of land off the North African coast, if he books a two-and-a-half hour ferry trip to Madeira. He will then have to book a flight to his intended destination, Tenerife, or return to Britain.


Monarch Airlines has yet to decide whether to sue him for the cost of the unscheduled diversion, estimated at "many thousands of pounds".

The unnamed passenger's difficulties began on Tuesday evening at 35,000 ft when he began abusing the cabin crew of flight ZB558 from Manchester. He refused to calm down and then turned his attention to the other 210 passengers.

Eventually the pilot decided that he posed a risk to safety and had to be removed.

Rather than continue for a further 45 minutes to Tenerife he diverted his Airbus A321 to Porto Santo. Within moments of the plane touching down the passenger was escorted to the terminal. Last night he remained a castaway on the Portuguese-controlled island. His New Year home is a mere 10 miles long by three miles wide with a population of 4,000. There is little entertainment apart from walking on the sand dunes.

Porto Santo's only cultural claim to fame is to have been the place where Christopher Columbus met his wife, the then governor's daughter.

Jo Robertson, of Monarch, refused to name the drunken passenger. She said that he was asked to sign a form admitting his disruptive behaviour, but had refused.

Despite enduring a four-hour delay, other passengers were "fully supportive" of the decision to dump the man.

Last night it was unclear either how or when he would return to Britain.

"He certainly won't be flying back with us," said Miss Robertson.



bga

8,134 posts

281 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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Nice one!

AlexH

2,505 posts

314 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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Good work Monarch!

Part of me does think its a shame they actually landed before pushing him out...

lazyitus

19,931 posts

296 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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Read this in the paper this morning -

Brilliant.

Happy New Year, Tosser !

chris watton

22,547 posts

290 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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AlexH said:
Good work Monarch!

Part of me does think its a shame they actually landed before pushing him out...


LOL, that's what I thought too! Pity they can't eject the scum, complete with dodgy parachute (scum pays for chute beforehand, if he can't, oh well) Zero tolorance for scum like this is the only way to go.

T5-R

434 posts

256 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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Good move by the pilot

Who cares how he gets back to Britain - that's his problem.

I hope Monarch send him the bill for the costs they incured for the unexpected landing. People like this should be banned from airplanes full stop!

Wacky Racer

41,390 posts

277 months

anonymous-user

84 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
Excellent!

And the unreported bit from the BBC news site:

"The plane and its remaining passengers (who were all laughing and giving him abusive hand gestures) then took off again for Tenerife"

Good work Monarch.

lockstock2sb

2,855 posts

273 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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Should have secured said drunk to the front undercarridge and circled the runway for half an hour - that would have sobered him up

No excuse for playing up on planes - he deserves a hefty fine at least.

benyeats

12,159 posts

260 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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T5-R said:
People like this should be banned from airplanes full stop!


He will be banned from Monarch now, not sure how it works between airlines but would be pretty surprised if they did not share data.

Ben

eccles

14,401 posts

252 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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as far as i can make out he was being verbally abusive....so i wonder which bit of being verbal can be constituted as being a danger to the aircraft!

JoolzB

3,549 posts

279 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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eccles said:
as far as i can make out he was being verbally abusive....so i wonder which bit of being verbal can be constituted as being a danger to the aircraft!

Yeah that's gotta be very abusive and threatening I would imagine for a pilot to change course. The passengers should have got together and beaten the crap outta him, much more satisfying.

Cotty

42,257 posts

314 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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Sooner or later some airline will breathalise you before you get on the plane and not sell alcohol

Corpulent Tosser

5,468 posts

275 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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I accept that I don't know just how this guy was behaving, or not, but it seems overkill to divert to Porto Santo rather than just continue to Tenerife and get the tt arrested there.

That way the other passengers would not have been inconvenienced by a delay caused by the diversion.

Corpulent Tosser

5,468 posts

275 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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lazyitus said:

Happy New Year, Tosser !


same back at ya lazyitus

allnighter

6,663 posts

252 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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eccles said:
as far as i can make out he was being verbally abusive....so i wonder which bit of being verbal can be constituted as being a danger to the aircraft!


People paid good money to travel in peace and quiet, had a fight started in the plane it would have constituted a danger to the aircraft.

I applaud the pilot's decision anyway, well done!

eccles

14,401 posts

252 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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how does a fight constitute a danger to the aircraft?....a danger to fellow passengers and cabin crew maybe....but a fight is not going to cause a plane to crash or be in danger of crashing!

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

291 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
eccles said:
how does a fight constitute a danger to the aircraft?....a danger to fellow passengers and cabin crew maybe....but a fight is not going to cause a plane to crash or be in danger of crashing!




You are taking the piss, right?

Stewards and Stewardesses are not just trolly dollies, they are there for your safety first. So the tt has a fight with a fellow passenger and the escape hatch gets opened/dislodged - not a danger?

Fighting raises adrenaline, making the person more aggressive, more aggression = danger to me.

eccles

14,401 posts

252 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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believe me...you wont be opening an escape door or ordinary door in flight on a pressurised airliner!

once again, it the wording /exscuse i find odd, yes he's a danger to other passengers and cabin crew, but he's not a direct threat to the aircraft, i cant think of one thing he could do in the cabin that would directly affect the ability of the aircraft to fly.

T5-R

434 posts

256 months

Friday 30th December 2005
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benyeats said:
T5-R said:
People like this should be banned from airplanes full stop!


He will be banned from Monarch now, not sure how it works between airlines but would be pretty surprised if they did not share data.

Ben


I'm pretty sure there's a central database somewhere where he now has a black mark against his name/passport#, so should he try to fly again, it'll come up.

A friend of mine in uni worked part time in a travel agents and said they had the ability to enter information about you into the booking system (ie: requires assistance boarding, could be difficult to deal with, etc...), which will pop up on screen to check-in staff as you check in.