After a year of stories documenting passengers mistreated by airlines, here’s one that goes the other way: an drunk and unruly passenger who so disrupted a Hawaiian Airlines flight that it had to turn back to Honolulu has been ordered to pay the airline nearly $100,000.
The passenger, a New Jersey resident, was on a Hawaiian flight in February, on the way home to the New York area, when he drunkenly threatened his girlfriend and her children, other passengers and crew members, and slapped a flight attendant. He pleaded guilty, saying was unable to remember what happened.
After the flight’s return he was arrested and sentenced to three months’ probation, but the airline also sued for damages. The judge’s award covers Hawaiian’s costs for turning the jet around, including fuel, maintenance, ground crew, replacement flight crew, landing fee and re-catering. It did not include the $46,000+ in meal vouchers it handed out in New York to passengers waiting for the plane to arrive.
