Noclasse Oblige

A United Airlines flight bound from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (AMS) was diverted to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) after an as-of-yet unnamed, reportedly intoxicated, business-class passenger behaved poorly upon learning his first meal choice was not available.

The Sunday, 09 July incident aboard United Airlines Flight 20 necessitated the dumping of a sizeable amount of fuel over the Windy City, and occasioned the following statement from the Chicago-based legacy air-carrier:

“United Flight 20 from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Amsterdam diverted to O’Hare International Airport and landed safely following a passenger disturbance. Law enforcement met the aircraft at the gate and escorted the passenger off the plane. The aircraft then continued to Amsterdam.”

United’s “passenger disturbance” euphemism inaccurately reflects the numbers of dollars and hours lost.

Further details pertaining to the incident remain scarce; however, Twitter user XJonNYC posted a photo of a United Airlines internal communique citing a “disruptive pax onboard [Flight 20], seat 11G, threat-level one." The communique went on to confirm the plan to dump fuel, remove the unruly passenger, and refuel the Boeing 777/200ER (registration N74007) before continuing the flight.

The unruly UAL passenger’s threat-level one designation reflects the lowest of the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) four-tier threat-level classification system. Level-one threats consist of verbally-threatening or disruptive behavior. Level-two denotes an escalation to physical abuse of passengers, crew-members, or the aircraft. Level-three represents life-threatening behavior or the brandishing of a weapon. Level-four comprises the attempted or actual breach of the aircraft’s flight-deck.

As the UAL Flight 20 passenger’s truculence was deemed a level-one threat, it may be inferred his transgression against civilized behavior was verbal in nature. Nevertheless, the air-crew’s decision to divert the flight presupposes a surfeit of vehemence and an accompanying paucity of circumspection on the offending passenger’s part.

In point of fact, interfering with the duties of a cockpit- or cabin-crew-member constitutes a violation of federal law. Though the FAA lacks criminal prosecutorial authority, the agency is authorized to impose fines—hefty ones. Per the FAA’s 2018 Reauthorization Bill, unruly passengers may be fined up to $37,000 per-violation. Moreover, one disruptive incident may result in the levying of multiple fines. Cases in which passengers’ disruptive behavior is deemed potentially criminal are handed over to the FBI for investigation and the DOJ for prosecution.

Travel review website Live and Let’s Fly reported the main-course choices afforded United Airlines business class passengers traveling from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Amsterdam (AMS) are: seared beef short rib, seared lemon-grass salmon, or ricotta salata (a popular dish in Afghan cuisine) and wild honey manicotti.

United Airlines’ website sets forth the air-carrier’s one-way, IAH to AMS, business class per-seat fare averages $6,927.

FMI: www.united.com