This family takes the cake!...smoking on a plane!
 

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I mean where have you been for the last 20 years! A Nova Scotia family of three refused to stop smoking on a flight from Halifax to the Dominican Republic and, as a result, the plane was diverted to Bermuda. Sun Wing holidays is seeking $40,000.00 in damages from the family!......

We have multiple winners here!

Alex

I hope a judge awards more than the $40,000. These idiots should refund everyone else on the plane's ticket price for having to smell that ****.

I would be livid if I had to sit there for a multiple hour flight and be subjected to that, and my wife is the one who is allergic to cig smoke.

It's a story many Canadians have been talking a-boat.

Those news folks talk funny.

Saw the news story yesterday. We were talking about how much the airline would wack the family for the stop. $40K sounds light. Hotel rooms for the night would run $15K-$18K and then landing fees.

How much would landing fees be?

What about the vacation tiime those poor families lost due to all the BS? They should sue on top of that. Make them pay. Why people do things like that is beyond me?

Stupid all around. The airline guy essentially said they diverted the flight because the other passenger's "lives were in danger". That's even more stupid than smoking on a plane. Why not just continue the flight and put the 3 offenders in jail for the night and fine them for disorderly conduct? I'd rather breathe a little smoke than get delayed for a day.

Oh, and BTW, I once spent a 10-hour flight from Munich to San Francisco next to a drunken slob with BO. I would have preferred smoke. Oddly enough, the smelly slob was German.

This ^^^^....also, the returning passengers, i.e. those waiting in the DR to return home to Halifax had to be put up in rooms for the night as well, as their return flight was delayed by 24 hrs!

Yes, wtf where they thinking!

Can't we give flight attendants tazers?

How about maybe 10 or so guys on the plane beat the living fu@k out of the 3 offenders and duct tape them to thier seat and finish the flight!!!!

Works for me. :)

pretty much my first response. Some people just need their asses kicked.

The penalty for a punch in the mouth is far too great in our modern society.

We needed Speeder on that plane. He would have just b*Tch slapped those azzhats and the flight would have gone straigth to the DR! I am not at all a fan of hitting people, but these folks are asking for it. ;)

G

Seems like this could have been easily resolved.

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Talking about this with some fellow AME's. The aircraft landed heavy which means that there was a pretty extensive inspection to be carried out. These people would definitely be looking at a six figure bill for the delay, maintenance costs, hotel accommodations for 100+ people and let's not forget the " smoking on an a/c is a federal offense which may result in a big a$$ fine + jail time x3 "

Mom & dad were fined $1000. Charges against the son were dropped as no one was in court to testify against them.

An Ontario law firm representing a Cape Breton family that were taken off a Sunwing jet in Bermuda last Friday night has issued a public statement saying no one in the family was smoking on the plane.

“At no point did any member of the MacNeil family smoke on the airplane,” says the statement signed by Michael Haraschuk, a lawyer with Weaver Simmons LLP in Sudbury.

A Sunwing Airlines flight was en route from Halifax to the Dominican Republic when it was diverted to Bermuda after an incident on board involving the MacNeil family of Mabou.

In an email to media outlets Thursday evening, Haraschuk wrote that the law firm represents the MacNeil family and was making the statement on its behalf.

“There has been a great deal of information released about this incident that will be clarified in the fullness of time and in the proper forum,” he said in the email.

A Sunwing spokesman said this week that the company plans to sue the MacNeils to recover the costs associated with the unscheduled landing and for costs related to accommodating other passengers overnight in Bermuda.

The law firm’s statement says there has been “misinformation” circulating about whether members of the MacNeil family were smoking on the airplane.

It says David MacNeil Jr. was charged with smoking in a lavatory in the plane.

He entered “a plea of not guilty to the charge of smoking on the airplane and the charge was dismissed.”

Reached Friday morning, Haraschuk said that the family has been swamped with calls from the media.

“They need some rest over there, right.

“We thought it would be appropriate to issue something, and as you can see there is a lot of information out there. There are a lot of stories out there. We are not going to be able to get into anything until the proper time and the proper forum,” he said

David MacNeil, 54, pleaded guilty in Bermuda court Monday to behaving in a disorderly manner by using abusive and offensive language on the flight. His wife, Darlene MacNeil, 52, pleaded guilty to disobeying a lawful order by a flight attendant.

The couple were fined $500 each.

David MacNeil Jr., 22, and his father each denied a charge of disobeying a lawful order. Those charges were dismissed after the Crown offered no evidence.

The court was told that problems began when David MacNeil Jr., who needed to use the washroom, was told by flight attendants to return to his seat until the captain had turned off the seatbelt sign.

MacNeils didn't smoke on Sunwing flight, their lawyer says | The Chronicle Herald

Why did the plane land heavy?
Cant they dump fuel to get down to the landing weight?

My understanding is they have to circle to dump fuel. The pilots probably wanted to get it on the ground as fast as possible if they had a actual fire onboard.

Airbus? Thought they dont have fuel dump capability. BTW, you're the really tall dude, right?

I'm not defending these folks "if" they were indeed smoking on the plane, but somebody has lost their freakin' mind and made a "mountain out of a molehill" imo. Seriously folks...15 years ago smoking WAS allowed on planes...this didn't call for the extreme measure the airline took imo...simply arrest and fine the hell out of them once the plane lands. I do recall back when the smoking ban took effect back in the late 90s...shortly thereafter a belligerant passenger decided to light one up in the back...the police were waiting for him when the flight was over :). Common sense goes a long way...both sides.