Being a nuisance will cost you.
About a year ago, a 32-year-old man on a flight from Perth to Sydney, Australia, exhibited “unruly” behavior that ultimately led the captain to turn the plane back around to Perth and cancel the trip. In order to do so, the plane had to unload the fuel that would’ve been required for the four-hour journey. The passenger was arrested and charged as soon as the plane returned to its origin.
Now, after many months of court dates and back-and-forth, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has charged the misbehaving man with the full cost of the plane’s wasted fuel. He pleaded guilty to disorderly behavior on an aircraft and failure to comply with safety instructions.
Neither the passenger’s name nor that of the airline has been released to the public—nor have the details of his disruptive behavior.
The fuel costs came out to just over $5,800, or 8,630 Australian dollars, paid directly to the airline. On top of that, the Magistrate Court of Perth, where the flight originated, fined him another $6,000, bringing his total cost for bad behavior to just shy of $12,000.
Ideally, the fine and repayment order “will serve as a warning that criminal behavior on board can come at a heavy cost to the offender,” Shona Davis, acting superintendent of the AFP, wrote in a statement. “It’s far simpler to obey the directions of airline staff than cause unnecessary issues, which can end up hitting you in the hip pocket.”
The AFP, she added, “is committed to ensuring all [travelers] have a safe journey from their departure through to their arrival at their destination.”
Bad behavior on planes is nothing new, but after the pandemic, more passengers forgot their manners. “Unruly passenger incidents” on flights skyrocketed 47% between 2021 and 2022, per an analysis by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Most of those were from noncompliance. Masking requirements were a constant pain point in the immediate post-pandemic era, but as the mandates were lifted, people behaved badly in other ways. The most common noncompliant actions, IATA found, were smoking and vaping, refusal to fasten seatbelts, bringing too many carry-on bags onboard, and overdrinking.
Then there are the outbursts. That’s mainly due to frustration—and typical high-octane travel stress. The general exhaustion of a travel day can put even a typically even-keeled person “in an agitated, reactive-brain state,” Frank Thewes, a New Jersey therapist, recently explained to Thrillist.
In between shrieking at flight attendants, instigating physical arguments with other passengers, and showing up drunk or disorderly, regulators have been struggling to contain unruliness and keep flights on their paths. In January 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rolled out a zero-tolerance policy for disruptive plane behavior, following a “disturbing” growth in reported instances.
But despite their best efforts, bad behavior has continued; the worst of it moves up the chain and often involves the Department of Justice, including the FBI. Most of those offenses include physical and sexual assault of crewmembers or other passengers—or attempts to breach the cockpit.
One particularly unruly passenger in 2021 racked up a nearly $41,000 fine for bringing their own alcohol onto a flight, sexually assaulting a flight attendant who told them to stop drinking, and then smoking weed in the plane bathroom. They were then arrested for both public intoxication and resisting arrest, the FAA said.
Last year, unruly air passengers paid a combined $7.5 million in fines. “Dangerous passengers put everyone at risk—and the Biden-Harris Administration has been clear that those who disrupt flights will be held accountable,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “Unruly travelers face stiff fines from the FAA and possible criminal prosecution too.”
