Woman disrupts flight, gets £85,000 bill

[theprestige]

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I understand that an escort might be handy if a plane is lost or has been taken over by hijackers. Neither of these incidents occurred. In this case it seems unnecessary to send an escort.

How long do you think it takes to figure all that out and make sure everything is under control and all the troublemakers have been found and subdued?

Do you really want air forces to wait and see, before scrambling to intercept? I don't.

 

[Trebuchet]

She can send the RAF a bill for setting up a realistic training exercise for them.

 

[Foolmewunz]

In the Good Samaritan department, the married couple who helped subdue crazy lady are complaining that the airline isn't sharing the fine with them.

May I suggest a t-shirt for them:
The RAF Scrambled Two Fighters
and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee Shirt

They're quoted by the always-reliable Sun as being proud of being heroes but saying that the airline should give them part of the "fine".

Nice to see altruism is still with us. (The airline could've at least comped their tickets, as they should've with everyone on the flight, but there was no "fine". Airlines don't have the power to fine. They sent her a bill for their costs.)

 

[Puppycow]

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I understand that an escort might be handy if a plane is lost or has been taken over by hijackers. Neither of these incidents occurred. In this case it seems unnecessary to send an escort.

I suspect they were operating on the "Better safe than sorry." model.

It's training for the fighter pilots anyway. They fly all kinds of training missions anyway that have no other purpose than to keep everyone involved "in practice" so I imagine from the RAF's perspective it was not an unwelcome mission. In fact it's like practice in case the real thing ever happens.

 

[CORed]

You can get a fighter escort for only £85,000 ?

good to know.

I think the airline is just billing her for their costs related to diverting the flight. She may be getting another bill from the government for the fighter escort.

 

[CORed]

She's out on BAIL?

Wow. I was under the impression that saying, "That's da bomb!" on an airplane would get one tossed in a black site.

I wonder what the hell her problem was. Obviously, they must have determined that she wasn't a terrorist following her arrest. Drugs, I assume.

Sidenote: I noticed another detail in that article - it said that her previous fine for drunk driving was the equivalent of 212 American dollars? Is that a misprint? I believe that fines for drunk driving here are a LOT higher. Like, a LOT LOT higher.

$212? I've had speeding tickets that cost that much.