Australian man flying to Sydney forces plane back to Perth, fined and told to pay Jetstar for fuel

The 33-year-old Australian owes an airline A$5800 or fuel. Photo / 123rf

In the latest move to rein-in disruptive passengers, a 33-year-old Australian man will have to pay a hefty fine after his bad behaviour during a flight forced a plane to dump fuel and return to the airport last year.

Australian Federal Police announced the penalty as well as the man’s guilty plea this week. He was slapped with a fine of about A$6000 ($6533) by Perth Magistrates Court and told to pay the airline roughly A$5800 for fuel.

Police said in a statement that the incident dates to September 2023, when the man was flying from Perth to Sydney. His actions – which authorities did not describe – forced the pilots to return to Perth. That pushed the pilots to dump fuel before landing and the airline to cancel the flight.

At the time, the passenger was charged with disorderly behaviour on an aircraft and failure to comply with safety instructions. He pleaded guilty to both last week.

The agency did not identify the man or the airline, but Australian news outlets have reported since last year that the incident occurred on a Jetstar flight. The low-cost carrier is a subsidiary of Qantas.

In a news story, WAtoday.com reported that the man was accused of being “intoxicated and disruptive” and that he locked himself in a toilet until the plane landed.

“Sorry, guys!” he said in a message to fellow passengers when confronted by TV news reporters last year. During the interview with outlets including 9News, he flexed a biceps muscle and said of “course” he would plead guilty because he wouldn’t face prison for the charges.

“All it is is just a fine,” he said, laughing.

In a statement this week, police Superintendent Shona Davis was not treating the incident as a laughing matter.

“This incident should serve as a warning that criminal behaviour on board can come at a heavy cost to the offender,” she said.

“It’s far simpler to obey the directions of airline staff than cause unnecessary issues, which can end up hitting you in the hip pocket.”

Airlines have gone after passengers for the costs racked up by their behaviour in the past. In 2019, a British-based carrier said it had billed a passenger the equivalent of US$106,000 ($172,000) for actions including trying to open plane doors during a flight.

At the time, aviation lawyer Jol Silversmith told the Washington Post that he had seen “carriers becoming more aggressive with passengers who they believe have broken the rules”.

In 2019, the International Air Transport Association called disruptive passengers “a significant problem”, with one incident for every 1053 flights reported in 2017.

Incidents spiked in the United States in 2021, soaring nearly 500% compared with the previous year – from about 1000 to nearly 6000 – as travellers clashed with flight crews over pandemic mask mandates and other issues.

Numbers have dropped in the years since, but the US Federal Aviation Administration has still received nearly 900 reports of unruly passenger behaviour so far this year – more than were reported in all of 2018. Globally, the International Air Transport Association said incidents increased after 2021.

According to the trade group, there was one unruly incident reported for every 568 flights in 2022, an increase from one per 835 flights in 2021 – and a significant jump from 2017 numbers.

Conrad Clifford, the association’s deputy director-general at the time, said in 2023 that the trend was “worrying”.

“No one wants to stop people having a good time when they go on holiday – but we all have a responsibility to behave with respect for other passengers and the crew,” said Clifford, who retired last year.

“For the sake of the majority, we make no apology for seeking to crack down on the bad behaviour of a tiny number of travellers who can make a flight very uncomfortable for everyone else.”