Legal authority of a Commander to offload passengers
Buongiorno,
I am a pilot based in Italy working for a UK based airline... I would like to have input from Italian pilots on a recurring problem. In th UK, the Air Navigation Order gives the Commander of a flight the authority to offload passengers who endanger the safety of a flight. The police provide more or less unquestioning support to offload disruptive passengers.
However, when faced with dispruptive passengers in Italy the local or airport police seem to go out of their way to not offload the passengers. I have had a dispatcher tell me that the police forced them to board a violent passenger. Can that be legal? Surely no-one can tell you to take a drunk/violence/terrorist onboard?
What can you do to offload disruptive passengers in Italy? Where do you legally stand? I am aware of the form that you should give to the police but I've seen police laugh at that.
Your help is very much appreciated,
Screwballs
Ps. The reasons behind the anger has been heavy drunkenness/delayed flight by two hours/death of a relative which led to physical violence at the gate.