Flight returned to Gran Canaria, cancelled due to disruptive passenger

Barry_Carpenter · 14 June 2019 at 1:21PM

Good afternoon,

I was on a flight on Monday 10/06/2019 returning from Gran Canaria, approx 10 minutes after take off a passenger threw a couple of punches at another passenger sitting behind him, after a few minutes the flight turned and returned to Gran Canaria. The inevitable wait for engine, police etc resulted in the plane being cancelled. EasyJet told us that they would provide us hotels and we would be instructed as to what was to now happen. After words outside in the terminal with Ground Force the hotels were provided although transport to and back from them wasn't.
We received breakfast, lunch and extended rooms at the replacement hotel and the flight eventually took off 24 hours after the initial one. I was in a group of 13 on a stag weekend.

Firstly are we due any flight compensation for this ? does an unruly passenger make the claim invalid ? Also I am a taxi driver and I had a school contract that had to be done on the Tuesday, the delay resulted in me having to pay for a replacement taxi to cover the job, can I claim this back ? I am kind of being pushed from pillar to post regarding this from Insurance and EasyJet who I am sure are both looking for an easy way out.

Thanks for reading and I hope that someone can help me out.

Barry

Nick_C · 14 June 2019 at 1:25PM

Exceptional circumstances beyond their control. The airline looked after you. They should have provided you with transport to and from the hotel. You can claim these costs from them.

Anything else is down to your insurance. If the flight cost more than £100 and you paid by credit card you could try a S75 claim for breach of contract and consequential loss.

Barry_Carpenter · 14 June 2019 at 1:34PM

I agree they looked after us but they could of arranged a plane or a crew to return us before they did, what reason could they possibly have for not getting us home in the morning rather than waiting until 8.00 in the evening ?
They flew us back at their convenience and not ours.

elsien · 14 June 2019 at 1:41PM

Barry_Carpenter wrote: »

I agree they looked after us but they could of arranged a plane or a crew to return us before they did, what reason could they possibly have for not getting us home in the morning rather than waiting until 8.00 in the evening ?
They flew us back at their convenience and not ours.

Probably because they don't have spare planes and crews waiting around on the off-chance. Plus rules about staff flying time and breaks, for safety reasons. Plus slots with air traffic control. Etc.

spadoosh · 14 June 2019 at 1:43PM

Barry_Carpenter wrote: »

I agree they looked after us but they could of arranged a plane or a crew to return us before they did, what reason could they possibly have for not getting us home in the morning rather than waiting until 8.00 in the evening ?
They flew us back at their convenience and not ours.

You say that, you dont know that.

When a customer rings you for a fare and they want you in 5 minutes but youre 20 minutes away, should they expect you in 5 minutes?

Lets assume chartering a replacement flight is a bit more complicated than arranging a plane and a crew to return you.

Theres a further problem with what you say in that, where do you draw the line. They couldve paid £100 million bought a new plane, got a load of private crew members got them on board. Paid massively over the odds for an emergency charter to thr relevant authorities as well as paying those at the airport a premium to take priority. But thats wholly unreasonable on EasyJet isnt it, they wouldnt be in business that long if thats what they had to do. Its a compromise, between getting you where you need to be, paying a reasonable price for it, facilitating the thousands of planes all ready scheduled.

I think you should focus your effort on the insurance company.

Justice13075 · 14 June 2019 at 1:54PM

Was your flight U2 8692 to Gatwick if so Euclaim say you might be due €400 compensation per passenger. If this was your flight put those details into bottonline and see what they say. If they agree go on to the Easyjet website and fill in the compensation claimform. If they reject your claim contact them and ask for a deadlock letter and take it to CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) for them to adjudicate.
24 hours is a long period to wait and they had a flight from Gran Canaria to Gatwick at 1pm that day did they tell you about that flight also they should have offered you re-routing did they offer that option to you?

Justice13075 · 14 June 2019 at 2:03PM

spadoosh wrote: »

You say that, you dont know that.

When a customer rings you for a fare and they want you in 5 minutes but youre 20 minutes away, should they expect you in 5 minutes?

Lets assume chartering a replacement flight is a bit more complicated than arranging a plane and a crew to return you.

Theres a further problem with what you say in that, where do you draw the line. They couldve paid £100 million bought a new plane, got a load of private crew members got them on board. Paid massively over the odds for an emergency charter to thr relevant authorities as well as paying those at the airport a premium to take priority. But thats wholly unreasonable on EasyJet isnt it, they wouldnt be in business that long if thats what they had to do. Its a compromise, between getting you where you need to be, paying a reasonable price for it, facilitating the thousands of planes all ready scheduled.

I think you should focus your effort on the insurance company.

With respect have you read EU261/2004.

JPears · 14 June 2019 at 2:55PM

Like justice says, 24 hrs is probably an unreaasonable lenght of time. Gran Caanaria is a busy airport with lotss of UK bound flights. If you weren't made aware of all the rights under 261/2004, such as re-routing with a different airline if necessary, then it could be argued compensaion maybe due. Easyjet can seek a legal route for recovery of their costs from the offending passenger.

VWPolecat · 14 June 2019 at 3:04PM

It would be nice if a civil action from the 200 customers could be made against the chap who caused the flight to return . Perhaps when he has lost all his cash and house he might not do it again.

Nick_C · 14 June 2019 at 3:18PM

JPears wrote: »

Like justice says, 24 hrs is probably an unreaasonable lenght of time. Gran Canaria is a busy airport with lotss of UK bound flights. If you weren't made aware of all the rights under 261/2004, such as re-routing with a different airline if necessary, then it could be argued compensaion maybe due. Easyjet can seek a legal route for recovery of their costs from the offending passenger.

Most flights from Gran Canaria to the UK are going to be charter flights or low cost carriers flying at 100% capacity or close to it. There would have been little, if any, spare capacity on other flights.

Crew rest periods are laid down by law, and probably caused the 24 hour delay.

Problems with the 737 Max fleet being grounded, and many 787s being out of action because of engine problems, has resulted in a shortage of aircraft available for wet lease. (BA are also using wet lease to provide a lot of new Gatwick flights to keep the slots they got when Monarch folded).

So yes, OP could claim under EU261. He might get compensation. He won't know unless he tries. But what we are saying is we think it is unlikely.

He has received what he was definitely entitled to, which was a hotel and refreshments.

richardw · 14 June 2019 at 3:50PM

Nick_C wrote: »

..... (BA are also using wet lease to provide a lot of new Gatwick flights to keep the slots they got when Monarch folded).....

That was last year. They’ve had new short haul aircraft delivered for Heathrow and others have been shifted to Gatwick.

easyJet has also had new aircraft delivered. It’s just daft that a crew can go out of hours at LPA and leave passengers stuck there for too long. Art 8 says re-routing at earliest convenience and that’s what easyJet should’ve done.

Flight returned to Gran Canaria, cancelled due to disruptive passenger

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free