OREANDA-NEWS. September 24, 2013. Podolsk city court upheld a suit filed by Aeroflot against Vyacheslav Ismailov — a passenger who had forced the emergency landing of airline’s plane. The defendant was pleaded guilty and fined 493,731 rubles (approximately 15 000 USD) to restitute damages as well as cost of state duties totaling 8,137 rubles.

On February 2nd 2013 Ismailov was on board of flight SU 274 Moscow-Phuket. Being alcoholically intoxicated, he behaved disrespectfully towards other passengers and the crew, inflicted blows on two passengers, disobeyed a written warning of the aircraft commander to stop violating rules of behavior on board.

Due to uncontrollable actions of Ismailov menacing the flight operation, the aircraft was diverted to Tashkent airport. The rowdy was removed from the plane and handed over to local authorities. The airline bore considerable losses and the passengers suffered gross inconvenience as well. Later in May, Aeroflot brought an action before the court demanding to recover damages from this incident.

Aeroflot is fully satisfied with the decision of the court. At the same time the airline would like to call public attention to the fact that such incidents caused by disruptive passengers have become an acute problem of the whole Russian airline industry. Thereby Aeroflot continuously supports boosting the measures against disorderly conduct on board including criminal liability for major offenses instead of current administrative actions.