JAIL: Divert & Get Sued!

[Metro752]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070605/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_italy_airline_1

MILAN (Reuters) - A Milan court handed out suspended jail sentences to two managers and a pilot at Italian airline AirOne for re-directing a flight without telling passengers until they were on board.

In a first for Italy, they were found guilty of aggravated fraud for not alerting passengers about the change of destination.


In July 2004 passengers on a late night plane from Milan to the Sardinian city of Cagliari were told mid-flight they would land in Alghero instead, on the other side of the island.


The reason given was that because the flight was delayed, it could not land in Cagliari where the runway was closed at night for maintenance.
The next day, some passengers decided to sue the airline.


"Passengers are thinking human beings and not merchandise," prosecutor Marco Ghezzi told the court. "They are people whose rights have to be respected."


The airline's lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.

If anyone is interested, the distance between the two cities 234km/145miles driving on their crooked roads.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=...97712,9.212036&spn=1.999382,5.141602&z=8&om=1

 

[CA1900]

Maybe a Skybus passenger buying a ticket to "Seattle" and ending up in Bellingham can repeat the exercise.

 

[A Squared]

If it were a unplanned unknown and unforeeable diversion, then I'd agree that suing isn't reasonable.

The article suggests that they boarded the passengers, knowing full well that the airplane would not go where it was advertised to go, and that they witheld the information from the passengers until they were airborne. If this is in fact what happend, I have absolutely no problem with suing them.

 

[Metro752]

I missed that bit, and agree.