During the flight and even before takeoff, James August of New Jersey became very unruly, threatening his girlfriend, her children, other passengers, crew members, and he even made physical contact with a flight attendant. All of that made the plane, bound for Kennedy, return to Honolulu.
James pleaded guilty in February to interfering with crew members. In June, U.S. District Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway sentenced him to 3 years of probation.
2 days ago, she also ordered him to pay Hawaiian Airlines $98,000 which covers the extra costs needed to turn the plane around back to Kennedy. The costs include fuel, maintenance, ground crew and replacement ground crew, and the landing fee. However, it does not cover the almost $50,000 ($46,900) in food vouchers given to the delayed passengers on the flight, and the pax scheduled to take the return flight to Honolulu.
What are your thoughts on the punishment? Too harsh, just right, or not enough? I feel it’s great. Play stupid games win stupid prizes!
Good, people should pay for what they cause. People think planes can be turned around with minimal cost. This isn’t you getting your burger with pickles when you requested no pickles. This is a massive machine with a crew of over 10 people taking care of it that costs thousands of dollars per hour of operation.
He could have had mental Heath issues or something like that.
Anyways I think he deserves this kind of punishment, threatening all those passengers is one thing, but putting your hands on a lady (flight attendant) is another thing.
I’d hate to be the odd one out but… Hawaiian Airlines is a very successful airline, I’m sure they could’ve risked losing $150K.
Yes, the passenger was an idiot, but $100K is VERY hefty, and that can really ruin his life. They could’ve at least made it a little easier and charged him half. He probably didn’t even see this coming. I can’t imagine having to pay off 100 thousand dollars. Unless he has a great job, how is he going to live? Where will he live, how will he get food?
Sorry, but I don’t see the human concern in all this.
Perhaps the person could’ve considered the consequences before acting recklessly. Could HA spare the money? Sure. But the US has seen a dramatic uptick in unruly passenger incidents, people think they can get away with murder just to get their way onboard an aircraft.
There needs to be legal precedent set so that people don’t pull this kind of nonsense when there aren’t enough ice cubes in their Coke Zero. If the person can’t afford the judgement, he can always declare bankruptcy and go from there.
Just know every action has its consequences. This man deserved it because he created a disturbance on-board a civilian aircraft which is a big no-no.
Moral of the story again: every action has its consequences.
This boils down to the fact that the passenger breached a contract and an agreement set forth by the airline therefore the monetary punishment is a result of liquidated damages for the said breach. Hawaiian Airlines is a business and their main objective is to provide a service to all of their customers for monetary compensation. The formula and algorithms for calculating the restitution fees are above my pay scale however in my work experience fines and fees such as this aren’t uncommon when a party breaches, alters, or differs from the original agreement. Take care, see you in the skies.