Hooray for Monarch Airlines

[C]

I've always thought of Air Marshalls as high ranking people whom I call Sir, make polite conversation with and treat like god whilst with them...

As for Woody's point, from what I believe the RAF still do fly "backwards"...

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Hi Charlie

Like you said Charlie, when you meet someone that high up the totem pole you show a lot of respect.

I was in an RAF Tri-Star in November last year, there were two here, both with different liveries I might add.

The one had the seats facing forward on the port side and stretchers on the starboard side.

Getting back to the topic I wonder why it took four (4) hours to drop off a drunk?
That is unreasonable and would have been unheard of when I was flying commercially.
Any flight delayed for whatever the reason usually brought the Airline Operations Manager face to face with you or you were on the phone doing some explaining.
It would be interesting to know if the airline received any fallout from this incident.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

[Hagar]

Getting back to the topic I wonder why it took four (4) hours to drop off a drunk?
That is unreasonable and would have been unheard of when I was flying commercially.
Any flight delayed for whatever the reason usually brought the Airline Operations Manager face to face with you or you were on the phone doing some explaining.
It would be interesting to know if the airline received any fallout from this incident.

I don't know the circumstances but this was an unscheduled landing. I doubt you could simply land & drop off a passenger in a foreign country without some formalities. It doesn't say if the the other passengers disembarked from the aircraft which would obviously have caused further delay. Then they would have to find it a slot to land at the original destination on a busy holiday route. If I'd been aboard that aircraft I might well have complained but I'm sure the captain wouldn't have gone to that extreme if he hadn't thought it a serious problem. It's quite possible he'd experienced something like this before & did it as a matter of principle to highlight the situation.

PS. This is the latest I can find on the incident. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/30/ncrusoe30.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/12/30/ixportal.html

The unwilling Robinson Crusoe will only be able to leave Porto Santo, a tiny patch of land off the North African coast, if he books a two-and-a-half hour ferry trip to Madeira. He will then have to book a flight to his intended destination, Tenerife, or return to Britain.

Monarch Airlines has yet to decide whether to sue him for the cost of the unscheduled diversion, estimated at "many thousands of pounds".

The unnamed passenger's difficulties began on Tuesday evening at 35,000 ft when he began abusing the cabin crew of flight ZB558 from Manchester. He refused to calm down and then turned his attention to the other 210 passengers.

Eventually the pilot decided that he posed a risk to safety and had to be removed.

Rather than continue for a further 45 minutes to Tenerife he diverted his Airbus A321 to Porto Santo. Within moments of the plane touching down the passenger was escorted to the terminal. Last night he remained a castaway on the Portuguese-controlled island. His New Year home is a mere 10 miles long by three miles wide with a population of 4,000. There is little entertainment apart from walking on the sand dunes.

Porto Santo's only cultural claim to fame is to have been the place where Christopher Columbus met his wife, the then governor's daughter.

Jo Robertson, of Monarch, refused to name the drunken passenger. She said that he was asked to sign a form admitting his disruptive behaviour, but had refused.

Despite enduring a four-hour delay, other passengers were "fully supportive" of the decision to dump the man.

Last night it was unclear either how or when he would return to Britain.

"He certainly won't be flying back with us," said Miss Robertson.

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Interesting read Doug

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

[bbstackerf]

My post about "Me and a couple'a guys named bubba" was self depricating humor. As in the mentality of the stereo typed "gun rack in the pickup" manly man. Have never personally owned a firearm outside the military.

Mostly because I should never be left alone with sharp objects let alone allowed to handle firearms.

It's a mental health issue.

Keni

PS If your pickup has a gun rack, my name is John and I live in Peoria Illinois.

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Hi Keni

You know what Keni, it was Hollywood that stereo typed the half ton and the gun rack in the back window along with the American Newspapers and Press.

I am a lot more comfortable when I meet an American from the military with a weapon than someone who has had no proper training in weapons.  I do know that most American States are trying to come up with some kind of National Training and Registration.  This is a step in the right direction.
In Canada our weapon restrictions are very strict.

Before continuing on as we are getting way off topic perhaps we should start a new topic on this.  

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

[TacitBlue]

Gun topics never turn out well around here. :-/

Go Monarch! That is great dropping him on some tiny island with little to nothing on it.