Originally Posted by Una
I always thought pilots were given cable ties to restrain violent pax? And are pax who cause a divert liable for extra fuel costs/handling fees etc incurred? Because they should be!
Pre 9/11 (probably in 2000) a colleague and I were on a Virgin flight from LHR to LAX, sat in the back.
A call went out for a doctor so we asked one of the CC what was going on - "First class passenger is kicking off so we're having to subdue him"
A few minutes later a guy is led past us with a blanket over his head and his hands ziplocked. Definitely an unusual situation!
Later on, I headed for the restrooms at the back and there's our guy spread across the four rear bulk head seats, strapped in with heavy belts and with his ankles and wrists zipped. A CC is sat beside him, on guard.
Later we were told that he'd been trying to snort coke off his seat table and got violent when they tried to stop him.
We were only two hours out of LHR at this point and we diverted to Iceland to get rid of him. Police came on the plane and carried him off.
According to the chatty CC, he'd be fined, have to pay the landing fees, takeoff fees, deice fees and fuel costs. And he was stuck on Iceland waiting for a boat as no airline would carry him!
The above was all gleaned from crew members but I'd be interested if anyone here had any recollection of this flight.