A British woman has been banned for life by a budget airline for what was called 'unacceptable bahavior' that forced a plane to make an unscheduled landing.
Budget airline Jet2 fined a 42-year-old woman from Sunderland $14,000 after being 'abusive' to the crew and generally disruptive to the flight in a way that could have threatened the safety of other passengers. The fine is for the costs incurred when the flight was diverted.
'Passengers were inconvenienced on New Year's Day because this woman's unacceptable behaviour towards our crew caused a substantial delay,' Phil Ward, managing director of Jet2.com, told the Mirror and added that the airline's number 1 priority is the safety and welfare of their customers and staff.
Flight Flight LS518, which was carrying 161 passengers and six crew from Newcastle to Tenerife, was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Shannon Airport in West Ireland where the woman was handed over to the police.
After being questioned, the woman was reportedly released without charge, although a police file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The incident caused a frustrating delay for the other passengers who were about four hours late when they finally arrived at the Newscastle Airport.
'The safety and welfare of our customers and staff is always our number one priority. With our "Onboard Together" initiative we openly vowed to take every possible action to stamp out antisocial behaviour on our flights and that is exactly what we are doing,' Ward said.
The Jet2 representative added that they will bill the passenger the cost of the return flight as well as coordinate with the Irish authorities for potential prosecution.
Last year, Yahoo Travel reports that Jet2 handed approximately over 50 lifetime bans to passengers who were abusive or disruptive towards staff and fellow passengers and stopped nearly 500 people from travelling.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
