While one should always strive to treat air crew members with respect, arguing and disregarding instructions is not a clearly-defined term and can be left to the discretion of the senior workers in a given situation. Consequences can range from a simple warning to a plane derailment, arrest and even lifetime flying ban.
Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it would start treating disruptive and violent passengers with even less tolerance than before to the point that even a one-time offender could earn a lifetime flying ban if the seriousness of the behavior warrants it.
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This week, an affidavit released in the U.S. District Court of Maine showed that a 30-year-old passenger on a United Airlines (UAL) flight from London to Newark International Airport (EWR) on March 1 was slapped with a $20,638 fine for “arguing loudly” and being generally “unruly and physically combative.”
Flight diverted to Bangor, disruptive traveler charged
United Flight 883 ended up having to be diverted to Bangor International Airport (BGR) with just an hour to go before the final destination.
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“A Chelmsford, England man was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Bangor for interfering with a flight crew,” writes the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine. “The charge stemmed from an incident on a United Airlines flight that diverted to Bangor International Airport (BGR) on March 1, 2024.”
Alexander Michael Dominic MacDonald had been in custody since March 1 and, after pleading guilty, was sentenced to time served and $20,638 in restitution to United.
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‘Intimidating and stating he would mess up the plane’
“While the flight was in U.S. airspace, MacDonald began arguing with his traveling companion and causing a disturbance,” the press release reads further. “When flight attendants asked MacDonald to be quiet and attempted to calm him, he became belligerent, threatening, and intimidating towards them. When the international purser aboard the flight intervened, MacDonald became belligerent and intimidating toward him as well and stated that he would ‘mess up the plane.'”
MacDonald was placed in flex cuffs (plastic handcuffs held aboard planes for situations such as this one) until the flight landed in Bangor as determined was necessary by the lead flight attendant onboard. He was then handed over to the FBI, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Bangor Police Department.
MacDonald was traveling with a girlfriend and, while he was the only one who got physically disruptive, both “appeared to be intoxicated.”
The latter is very often the source of problems during flights. Last August, a woman on a United flight from Houston to Los Angeles started getting disruptive because she reportedly “couldn’t get her wine.”
In a TikTok video that ended up getting viral, a flight attendant is heard telling the woman that they were going to “land the plane” and lead her off “in handcuffs” if she did not sit down and stop drinking when she was “not allowed to.” The woman, in turn, is heard saying things like “she’s accusing me” and “beat me up.”
“I gave you a hug because you told me you were having anxiety and I hugged you, and I knew you were drinking wine and you’re not allowed to and I still let you on the aircraft,” the flight attendant says in the video.
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