Re: Detaining pax on board - Legalities?
D SQDRN 97th IOTC
Thank you, we can all read papers, but this is about a member of the public not a police officer.
Although I did say earlier that when I police officer, I would find it difficult in the circumstances surrounding Ryanairs memo to justify it being nessesary to arrest a person who decided to get off. Even though he may well have committed all sorts of offences.
The new powers do not change that.
NigelOnDraft
I don';t doubt your ability to tell the difference, nor do I envy the position an airline crew may find it's self in.
Many of the circumstances you discribe I would be suprsied if an aircraft went back to stand to throw the passenger off, although it has happened. And once in the air, I certainly wasn't coming to you, so what happens while you are up there is your call.
Maybe I was reading too much into the circumstances, I assumed would be, if the memo was called into use. An aircraft stuck at a divertion for a period of time. And it is in those much more simplistic circumstances I would think a captain wouldn't have a leg to stand on if he refused disembarkation.
The cost implication to an airline isn't a concern of mine if I was called to that, or indeed a pax who at the last moment decided he was not going.
Thats not to say the cost isn't important to the airlines, just it wasn't something I could take into account when deciding what, if anything I was going to do.
Trip Switch.
Yes you have the powers discibed, which you would probably be called on to justify. The power you quote, only gives you the right to restrain on for acts on board and in relation to your aircraft, but we are not talking about a pax who decides to go nutty. We are talking about a person, who once on the ground decides he wants off. What justification have you for refusing that?
I am saying I don't think you have any. If you are at an airport, then the facilities exist to facilitate that. If the doors are open, then short of using the powers you discribe then how are you going to stop them going?
Again, I'll refer you to Flying Lawyer to answer points on sueing. It's a Civil matter not a Police one.