Last year a drunk passenger caused a diversion to Denver after bringing his own booze onboard and shouting “we’re all gonna die.” After inconveniencing a plane full of passengers and costing the airline significant amounts in crew time and fuel you’d think there might be consequences… but you’d be wrong. Alaska Airlines described the matter simply as “a customer service issue.” Earlier in the year A United flight from San Francisco to Sydney diverted to Auckland and passengers had to spend a day there because of a passenger who went off on a racist rant and threatened crew when he didn’t want to sit next to two Southeast Asians. He wasn’t charged. Flight diversions happen all the time, sometimes for weather or mechanical issues and occasionally for passenger health reasons. But when a plane load…
