BA flight diverted to Shannon- Unruly passenger

knucklehead6

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1219/court-damian-kingston.html

That's a pricey flight to be acting the maggot on!!

An unruly passenger tried to headbutt the captain on board a transatlantic aircraft that was forced to divert to Shannon Airport today.
Judge Patrick Durcan said that Damian Kington, 35, had endangered the safety of the crew and his fellow passengers on board the British Airways service to London City Airport.
The Australian was one of 30 passengers on board the exclusive business class 32-seater service BA operates between New York's JFK airport and London City Airport.
Judge Durcan told the court: "Being on board a small aircraft over the Atlantic faced with someone trying to headbutt the captain is very frightening."
He said in his view, the seriousness of the incident is such that the most severe penalties that can be imposed will be imposed.
The maximum penalty under which the two air rage charges Mr Kington has pleaded guilty to is a four-month jail-term.
In his statement to gardaí, captain and commander of the aircraft, Mike Jones said that Mr Kington was cursing and swearing in the galleyway after been given a written warning that he must remain in his seat and stop his unruly behaviour.
Captain Jones told gardaí Mr Kington swore at him, pushed him and tried to headbutt him.
The captain said it took two people to restrain the defendant.
He said: "At this point I considered him a serious risk to passengers and to the safety of the flight."
Mr Kington was put in handcuffs and was secured to his seat with nylon straps.
The captain said that the flight was one-and-a-half hours out from Shannon when the disruption became serious.
Solicitor for Mr Kington, Una Moylan said that her client has no recollection of the incident on the flight whatsoever and was mortified and devastated when she read out the garda statements to him.
She said: "He describes himself as a very gentle soul and told me that he had never in his life tried to headbutt someone before and this is completely out of character for him. He is mortified and genuinely remorseful."
Ms Moylan said that Mr Kington took prescribed medication, a Zanex and an Ambien tablets in an effort to go asleep.
The court heard that Mr Kington drank between four or five small bottles on wine on the flight.
The solicitor said Mr Kingston had never mixed these drugs and had never taken them with drink.
She said that her client heads up a marketing team for a high profile investment company and any conviction would have serious ramifications for him.
Ms Moylan asked that the Probation Act be imposed.
Judge Durcan said: "I am not really interested in incarcerating your client, but I am interested to ensure that those who have suffered loss are compensated."
The judge adjourned the case until Friday to Ennis District Court to allow the issue of compensation to BA be addressed and to also determine if Mr Kington has previous convictions in other countries.
Mr Kington was released on bail.

Tabnabs

Oh Damien, you foolish boy...

col.in.Cr

Zanax,Ambien,wine and an Aussie was always going to end in tears

Tenger

Idiot......Zanax with sleeping tablets was bad enough but "4-5 mini wines" on top of those in under 3 hours is seriously stupid.

Ben D Bus

Captain Jones told gardaí Mr Kington swore at him, pushed him and tried to headbutt him

The Captain left the flight deck to intervene? Are there 2 or 3 flight crew on these flights? Was the captain on a rest break in the cabin? What are the SOPs for incidents like these?

Fabio

Yeah wonder did the Captain come out and intervene?

Sounds like an interesting service this BA 32 seater. Like a cheap Concorde!

Tenger

Fabio wrote: »

....Sounds like an interesting service this BA 32 seater. Like a cheap Concorde!

Not that cheap.....5K sterling for the pleasure. Caters to the time is money City crowd. Saves the 1 hour taxi ride to LHR, stops off in SNN to refuel and clear US customs/immigration. Arrive into JFK as a Domestic flight, straight into a cab,most of these pax would have cabin baggage only.

Uses the same flight numbers as the former Concorde service. BA001/002 (and 003 and 004 somedays)

knucklehead6

Fabio wrote: »

Yeah wonder did the Captain come out and intervene?

Sounds like an interesting service this BA 32 seater. Like a cheap Concorde!

It's an Airbus A318. Goes from London City to Shannon where it refuels and the pax go through clearance there, so it's regarded as a domestic flight into the States.

Then goes direct from JFK to London on the return leg.

bluecode

BA001, with those fares he can well afford a hefty fine.

I never buy the excuses of those people. It's always a mixture of drink and medication. It's always 'out of character'. They always 'forget' the incident. All very convenient.

Throw the book at him.

His company won't care whether he does or doesn't have a conviction. His career is over.

LeftBase

In fairness he's not the 1st person to want to Headbutt a BA pilot......

Best username ever

Tell me how the feck an A318 flys from London to JFK with passengers ? I know they don't have much luggage but seriously a A318?

bluecode

They have to refuel westbound which is fortuitious for Shannon as they have the pre clearance facility. So it works out well.

I wonder could you pick up the flight from Shannon?

Riskymove

Best username ever wrote: »

Tell me how the feck an A318 flys from London to JFK with passengers ? I know they don't have much luggage but seriously a A318?

no check in baggage

only Business class bed/seat

I saw it land in JFK and could hardly believe my eyes at first

radar0976

I suspect that had the flight been inbound to the States and he'd behaved that way he would be treated alot more harsly.
Either way, no excuse for that type of carry on, whether it's on an aircraft or not.

Best username ever

Here it is coming into land at JFK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bLxGeKcFVU

sunnysoutheast

Best username ever wrote: »

Tell me how the feck an A318 flys from London to JFK with passengers ? I know they don't have much luggage but seriously a A318?

drop tanks! :pac:

cson

What kind of loadings are BA achieving on this does anyone know?

Tenger

cson wrote: »

What kind of loadings are BA achieving on this does anyone know?

No idea personally but from reading other website BA are very happy with the yield and/or loadfactors.

IRLConor

Best username ever wrote: »

Tell me how the feck an A318 flys from London to JFK with passengers ? I know they don't have much luggage but seriously a A318?

Going on Wikipedia numbers (yeah, yeah, I know) the max range for a fully loaded A318 is 3100nm and gcmap.com tells me that the shortest route LCY-JFK is 3017nm. Too close for comfort but I assume dropping two thirds of the passenger weight gives a decent extra chunk of range.

For the eastbound leg I presume the jet stream helps (they go direct JFK-LCY if I remember correctly) and for the westbound leg they have the stop in Shannon to get them a little further. A fully loaded A318 doesn't have enough runway in London City Airport so I presume the Shannon stop allows them to leave from City with a light load and get their full load in Shannon?

washman3

LeftBase wrote: »

In fairness he's not the 1st person to want to Headbutt a BA pilot......

As part of his punishment Mr.Kington will have to spend a weekend in Limerick City...:D

Munstermissy

cson wrote: »

What kind of loadings are BA achieving on this does anyone know?

Full most days as I was previously informed by a mate that works at the airport, also another poster asked do they pick up in Shannon and no is the answer.

Skuxx

cson wrote: »

What kind of loadings are BA achieving on this does anyone know?

I work with the lads who do line maintenance for this flight on the Shannon stopover....they say there's usually atleast 20+ on it, very often there would be 30+.....lowest they ever saw was 1!!
The service runs twice a day so it must be worth something to BA! They only have 2 of the planes....G-EUNA and G-EUNB....

BuffyBot

I wonder could you pick up the flight from Shannon?

No, you can't. Just from LCY.

Best username ever

alan1990 wrote: »

I work with the lads who do line maintenance for this flight on the Shannon stopover....they say there's usually atleast 20+ on it, very often there would be 30+.....lowest they ever saw was 1!!
The service runs twice a day so it must be worth something to BA! They only have 2 of the planes....G-EUNA and G-EUNB....

Probably the old concord clientele. Did someone say BA are charging 5k a ticket?

That's 160k per flight, does anyone know what the running costs for a A318 transatlantic would cost?

I'm sure it's cheaper than concord, no afterburners and all that, but still with comfort.

Is this the concord replacement?

IRLConor

Best username ever wrote: »

Is this the concord replacement?

Well, the flights are numbered as BA1 and BA2 so I suspect they're aiming for that.

Klunk001

Why do the cabin crew continue to feed drink to these individuals, to the point they are that pi@#ed the flight is put at risk

knucklehead6

Klunk001 wrote: »

Why do the cabin crew continue to feed drink to these individuals, to the point they are that pi@#ed the flight is put at risk

4 or 5 small bottles of wine (pub size bottles? I don't know) wouldn't really make a guy overly noticeably drunk I he had them early on in the flight. Maybe as the alcohol and tablets mixed in his blood stream he became abusive?

Not making excuses for the guy, it was twattish behaviour.

tu2j2

IRLConor wrote: »

Going on Wikipedia numbers (yeah, yeah, I know) the max range for a fully loaded A318 is 3100nm and gcmap.com tells me that the shortest route LCY-JFK is 3017nm. Too close for comfort but I assume dropping two thirds of the passenger weight gives a decent extra chunk of range.

I'm only assuming here but I would imagine there are extra fuel tanks in the cargo holds.

smurfjed

extra fuel tanks in the cargo holds.

some of our A320's are equipped with an additional tank in the hold, I believe it carries about 2000 litres.
So I would I imagine that the A318 has the same.

Smurfjed

aujopimur

Best username ever wrote: »

Here it is coming into land at JFK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bLxGeKcFVU

That was really exciting.

zenno

Una Moylan said that her client has no recollection of the incident on the flight whatsoever and was mortified and devastated

It will end one day with the death of all on-board. There are people walking around with no brain and the last thing anyone needs is a brainless drugged up alco on a flight. 2 years in prison will sort that dope out endangering the passengers and crew.

FWVT

Just wondering what do they do for crew rest periods? Does the Captain just retire to Row 1 for his/her break?

Skuxx

smurfjed wrote: »

some of our A320's are equipped with an additional tank in the hold, I believe it carries about 2000 litres.
So I would I imagine that the A318 has the same.

Smurfjed

The BA A318 do not have ACTs.
The main fuel tanks are the same size as any small Airbus, about 19100kg at 0.800.

The ACT as fitted to A319 320 321 does not fit in an A318 as the cargo doors are smaller. Airbus has developed a new one that does, but it was not available in the timescale that BA wanted! The BA 318's have a range of approx 3,600 miles according to BA website!

Tenger

Klunk001 wrote: »

Why do the cabin crew continue to feed drink to these individuals, to the point they are that pi@#ed the flight is put at risk

4-5 mini bottles of wine.........That's not a lot of wine to be served on flights. I highly doubt he told the crew that he had taken a Zanax and Ambien........so the responsibility is on him not the crew. (Strange that they don't have full bottles on this all J Business Class service)

EDIT: As highlydebased points out I misread the article and got the direction wrong. The captains quote of 150 miles out of SNN made me think they had left SNN previously.

highlydebased

Tenger wrote: »

Well He may have had 2 bottles on the LCY-SNN sector, then another 2 after take-off from SNN....then the abusive behaviour starts...........Thats not a lot of wine to be served on flights. I highly doubt he told the crew that he had taken a Zanax and Ambien........so the responsibility is on him not the crew.

Except the flight was going to LCY

St. Leibowitz

IRLConor wrote: »

For the eastbound leg I presume the jet stream helps (they go direct JFK-LCY if I remember correctly) and for the westbound leg they have the stop in Shannon to get them a little further. A fully loaded A318 doesn't have enough runway in London City Airport so I presume the Shannon stop allows them to leave from City with a light load and get their full load in Shannon?

There're a couple of factors that make this service very attractive, but the huge advantage it has is the US Customs and Immigration Pre Clearance at Shannon. Without it, it wouldn't have the same viability. The ultra fast checkin and security clearance at LCY (can be 15 minutes from front door of the airport to sitting on the aircraft) is great, but the need to refuel for a transatlantic flight didn't counteract that. Then came pre-clearance at Shannon. Ultra fast checkin and security, then clearing Customs and Immigration without the up to 2 hour delays at JFK, while the aircraft was being refueled ... winner. Takes off from Shannon and arrives at JFK as a domestic flight, pick up your bags and into the limo within 20 minutes of arriving.

smurfjed

The BA A318 do not have ACTs. The main fuel tanks are the same size as any small Airbus, about 19100kg at 0.800.

The range for the standard aircraft is 3100 nms or 3600 statute miles. A flight plan for tonight shows a Nautical Ground Distance from Shannon to JFK at 2802 nms, but with the forecast wind it becomes 3002 nms. Considering that holding fuel plan an alternate is required, then something doesn't add up.

smurfjed

L1011

Its well below the weight of a standard A318 though.

Skuxx

St. Leibowitz wrote: »

There're a couple of factors that make this service very attractive, but the huge advantage it has is the US Customs and Immigration Pre Clearance at Shannon. Without it, it wouldn't have the same viability. The ultra fast checkin and security clearance at LCY (can be 15 minutes from front door of the airport to sitting on the aircraft) is great, but the need to refuel for a transatlantic flight didn't counteract that. Then came pre-clearance at Shannon. Ultra fast checkin and security, then clearing Customs and Immigration without the up to 2 hour delays at JFK, while the aircraft was being refueled ... winner. Takes off from Shannon and arrives at JFK as a domestic flight, pick up your bags and into the limo within 20 minutes of arriving.

Only one of the 2 flights gets to use the preclearance! BA doesn't land until 5 in the evening which is after the preclearance closes!

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/ba003-new-york-service-to-lose-us-pre-clearance

Tenger

alan1990 wrote: »

Only one of the 2 flights gets to use the preclearance! BA doesn't land until 5 in the evening which is after the preclearance closes!

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/ba003-new-york-service-to-lose-us-pre-clearance

Yes but this is a relatively recent change. Originally Glasgow was considered for this fuel stop but SNN won with the CBP pre-clearance. For some pax this flight will still be attractive due to the convenience to their central London place of work and ease of transit through LCY.

From your quoted article: But BA has confirmed on its website that from October 28 pre-clearance will only be available on flight BA001.

flazio

Forgive me if I'm being naive, but if any transatlantic flight diverts to Shannon (or indeed Cork, Knock, Dublin etc.) because of an offensive act performed on the flight, is that person legally entitled to be tried under Irish law, as if the offence took place in Irish territory?

L1011

flazio wrote: »

Forgive me if I'm being naive, but if any transatlantic flight diverts to Shannon (or indeed Cork, Knock, Dublin etc.) because of an offensive act performed on the flight, is that person legally entitled to be tried under Irish law, as if the offence took place in Irish territory?

I'm nearly certain they *have* to be tried under Irish law if charged, rather than entitled to be.

roundymac

ww.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/bills28/bills/2004/1104/default.htm
This may help, I hav'nt had time to read it myself.

Suasdaguna1

And more unruly fugh-ology
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256463/Drunk-women-force-British-Airways-flight-make-emergency-landing-tried-storm-cockpit.html

In this incident the ladies were thrown in a cell for a night and sent home via air the next day.

The sooner we have custodial sentences that puts the shivers up passengers that endanger the lives of others the better. Fines are crap, cold cells get the message across.

L1011

Only problem is that the Irish taxpayer would end up on the hook for imprisoning lots of drunken louts from other countries who were never coming here (till they caused a diversion). Better to fine the bejaysus out of them in that case.

Tenger

MYOB wrote: »

Only problem is that the Irish taxpayer would end up on the hook for imprisoning lots of drunken louts from other countries who were never coming here (till they caused a diversion). Better to fine the bejaysus out of them in that case.

I much prefer revoking their right to travel on the diverted airline AND warning all other airlines operating in/out that country of their behaviour.
Let them pay full whack to get home and be forced to sign an affadavit of good behaviour before boarding the aircraft of any other airline