Sunwing considering legal action after incident on Halifax flight
Posted Feb 4, 2013 05:51:02 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Sunwing Airlines is considering suing a family to recover the $50,000 it cost for one of its planes to make an emergency landing in Bermuda.
The travel company says its flight from Halifax to the Dominican Republic was forced to make the detour Friday night because a man, his wife and their 22-year-old son were said to be openly smoking in their seats.
Spokesman from Sunwing, Daryl McWilliams, tells News 95.7 they are waiting to get all of the costs pulled together.
“We have to wait to get bills back from the DR, bills from Bermuda, and we have to calculate our own time, the costs of getting a mechanic to fly to Bermuda,” he explains.
The airline also had to pay for hotels and meals in Bermuda and the Dominican Republic for passengers stuck in both countries because the flight was diverted.
McWilliams says all the company wants is compensation for their extra costs.
“If we were to pursue this successfully and, just hypothetically, if the cost of recovery was $50,000, I think that’s an expensive lesson,” he says.
David McNeil, 54, Donna McNeil, 52, and David McNeil, 22, all from Mabou, N.S. were arrested after the plane landed and later released on bail.
On Monday they were back in a Bermuda court, where the elder David MacNeil pleaded guilty to behaving in a disorderly manner.
His wife pleaded guilty to disobeying lawful commands.
They were both fined $500, with a penalty of 10 days in jail if they failed to pay.
Their son denied the charges and he was released after the Crown offered no evidence.
