An Airbus A380 superjumbo operated by the German flag carrier Lufthansa was forced to divert to Boston Logan International Airport in the early hours of Thursday morning after an unruly passenger allegedly started attacking one of their seatmates, the Massachusetts State Police has said.
Lufthansa flight LH-459, with 508 people on board, departed San Francisco at around 10:39 pm on June 10 for what should have been an 11-hour transatlantic flight to Munich.
The massive double-decker aircraft headed northeast towards Canada (which is the shorter route to Europe as the plane follows the curvature of the Earth). Nearly three hours into the flight, however, the pilots suddenly changed course and started heading back towards the United States.
On board the plane, an unruly passenger had allegedly attacked another passenger and been restrained by flight attendants. The pilots decided that the unruly passenger posed such a serious risk to the safety of the flight, that they were left with no other alternative but to divert to Boston.
Unfortunately, at the point the incident unfolded, the A380 was flying in the vast wilderness of central Canada. Given the size of the superjumbo, there are very limited diversion points, so a decision was taken to head towards Boston, where Lufthansa already has a significant presence, and the airport is capable of handling Airbus A380s.
Once safely on the ground, the unruly passenger was removed from the plane and taken into custody. The plane then continued its journey to Munich, departing Boston at around 10:30 am on Thursday.
At this time, the Massachusetts State Police have not released the name of the suspect, and it remains unclear whether charges will be pursued.
Diverting an aircraft the size of an A380 can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, although in this type of situation, passengers will not be eligible for compensation under Europe’s EU-261 delayed flight rules.
An unruly passenger incident is considered a so-called “extraordinary circumstance” which exempts airlines from paying out up to €600 in compensation per passenger.
