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Recently I faced an extraordinary situation during my flight inside the EU. A very large group of passengers (80% of all passengers, mostly men, probably football fans) already quite drunk during boarding, was behaving against safety instructions. They occupied the lavatory before and during take-off, creating a constant huge line to the WC, which prevented the crew from explaining the safety instructions normally, delivering the snacks and beverages (the corridor was occupied during the whole flight - 1.5 hours), and was generally behaving far beyond any regulations.

Some of them were also smoking, shouting and bothering other passengers. The cabin crew was obviously not able to deal with the situation (they didn't really try) and started selling alcohol to already very drunk passengers, which of course, escalated the whole situation.

I never had such a creepy flight and don't really know what a passenger can do in such situation. Is there any law that protects the passengers in such cases? I just want to know, if there is any chance to get a compensation for this flight, and/or at least to prevent such cases in future

Thanks a million for your replies.

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    What kind of protection do you ask about or would you expect?
    – Neusser
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 12:37
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    Well obviously neither me, nor other few passengers (not belonging to the drunk group) were feeling safe during this flight. As far as I know smoking and drinking too much is not allowed on board. Moreover, drunk passengers should not even be allowed to come on board. And as I said, the drunk passengers were not following the instructions of the cabin crew during take-off and landing, which affected other passengers. I just want to know, if there is any chance to get a compensation for this flight, and/or at least to prevent such cases in future. Thanks
    – Milla
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 12:42
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    Nope, no automatic right to compensation here - you can complain to the airline about the conduct of fellow passengers and its crew, and ask for compensation but they aren't obligated to provide you with any. You could complain to the aviation authority in the origin, destination or airlines home country about the issues with smoking (banned on all EU flights by individual aviation authorities), drunkenness and issues with the mandated safety briefing, but again no automatic right to compensation exists there either.
    – user29788
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 13:15
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    "How can you expect to remove all those guys from the plane without a fight"? If the pilot thinks the guys are dangerous, the airport will have unlimited amount of force available to remove them, and whether they try to fight will be quite irrelevant.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 19:45
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    Smoking onboard a flight is illegal and definitely should be reported, if that is in deed what was going on. I am surprised none of the smoke alarms and detectors were triggered as this would have raised an alarm in the cockpit. Was this a private charter?
    – Burhan Khalid
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 4:46

1 Answer 1

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Elevating my comment to an answer, as it's more appropriate as one.

Nope, no automatic right to compensation here - you can complain to the airline about the conduct of fellow passengers and its crew, and ask for compensation but they aren't obligated to provide you with any.

You could complain to the aviation authority in the origin, destination or airlines home country about the issues with smoking (banned on all EU flights by individual aviation authorities), drunkenness and issues with the mandated safety briefing, but again no automatic right to compensation exists there either.

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  • 15
    I know @Stuart has complained to an authority about a lack of safety briefing on a flight before, and action was taken. Might be a good idea.
    – Mark Mayo
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 13:27
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    Seems like this would be grounds for suspension of the crew for negligence, and possibly even the airline, so I'd definitely complain to the aviation authority above the airline.
    – l0b0
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 20:19

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