We know that boarding can be improved. In fact, science has long been around. But once inside, the passengers we share the journey with are not chosen. This is where luck comes into play and we can have a calm and peaceful flight, or as in some notorious cases, we can have noisy passengers, fights and in the worst case scenario, someone so crazy that the pilot decides to turn back. So far, everyone has paid a few bucks in these cases. A decision in Australia could change that.

News. It all happened twelve months ago when a 32-year-old man, flying from Perth to Sydney (Australia), displayed “unruly” behavior that eventually led the captain to turn the plane around and cancel the trip for the remaining passengers. As the court ruling reminded these days, the plane had to empty the fuel needed for the 4-hour journey. The passenger was detained upon arrival at the airport.

Now, months later, the trial of these events has been held after several hearings. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged the passenger and he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on the plane and failure to comply with safety instructions. The solution: You will have to pay the full cost of the fuel the plane wasted.

How much are we talking about? Neither the passenger’s name nor the name of the airline has been made public, nor have the details of his disturbing behaviour been released, but it has emerged that the fuel cost him just over $5,800, or AU$8,630, which was paid directly to the airline.

Not only that, but the Perth Magistrates Court, where the escape took place, reportedly fined him an additional $6,000, bringing the total cost of the abuse to just under $12,000.

Notice to sailors. The news can only be understood as a warning for similar cases in the future, and indeed the ruling ruled so. As police chief Shona Davis explained in a statement, “The fine and restitution order will serve as a warning that criminal behaviour on board can be costly to the offender. It is much easier to follow the instructions of airline staff than to cause unnecessary trouble that could harm you.”

A problem from a distance. For some time now, thanks to the possibilities offered by networks and videos uploaded by users, we have witnessed countless cases where the interior of airplanes turned into a ring of arguments and, in the worst case, all kinds of fights took place between passengers.

Sometimes alcohol can be a trigger, but there are all sorts of stories that almost always end with one or more passengers being evacuated by security forces. If the plane is already in the air, everyone pays when the flight returns.

Report documenting misconduct. In fact, we can confirm that bad behavior on airplanes is not new, but has gotten worse since the pandemic. According to an analysis by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), “incidents with unruly passengers” on flights increased by 47 percent between 2021 and 2022. How?

Most of it, he explains, is due to not following the rules (like mask use after the pandemic), but when those rules are lifted, people behave badly in other ways. The most common actions, according to IATA, were smoking and vaping, refusing to wear a seatbelt, carrying too much hand luggage on the plane, or drinking too much alcohol.

Now, the new measure measures more than ever how “expensive” misconduct can be.

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