In the US, I may see a passenger making an attempt to sue an airline for a diversion. In the meantime in Thailand, an airline is suing a passenger for complaining a couple of diversion, as flagged by View from the Wing.
Traveler complains about Thai Airways diversion to Sydney
This incident occurred on January 28, 2024, and includes Thai Airways flight TG465 from Bangkok (BKK) to Melbourne (MEL). The flight was operated by a roughly five-year-old Airbus A350-900 with the license plate HS-THN.
On the morning the flight was speculated to land, visibility in Melbourne wasn’t good. After a while in a holding sample, the choice was made to divert to Sydney (SYD). The aircraft spent a while on the bottom, after which ultimately operated the brief flight from Sydney to Melbourne, arriving a bit over 4 hours late.
The purpose at which this story will get attention-grabbing is that one passenger who claimed to be an everyday on the route took to Fb to complain about this diversion. He claimed the diversion was pointless, and accused the crew of not carrying sufficient gas, and of not being assertive sufficient with air site visitors management.
He additionally claimed that different flights have been touchdown in Melbourne with out concern, and that skies have been clear via the home windows of the plane. This publish ended up getting fairly a little bit of consideration, particularly after a well-known Thai Airways pilot on social media took time to reply to these complaints, and set the document straight.
This passenger feels like a gargantuan knob, plain and easy. How absurd to baselessly query a pilot’s determination to divert, particularly with logic like “however it was clear when searching the home windows.” That being mentioned, if it have been unlawful to behave like an fool on the web, we’d should shut the entire thing down, no?
Effectively, this isn’t the top of the story…
Thai Airways sues passenger over grievance
Thailand has a number of the world’s strictest defamation legal guidelines, which are sometimes taken to the intense. So complaining about one thing on-line can usually be interpreted as defamation, and we’ve seen a numerous variety of these instances over time.
Effectively, that’s precisely what Thai Airways is pursuing. The airline states that the crew adopted worldwide security and safety requirements, and is now searching for to guard its repute within the type of pursuing authorized motion towards the passenger. The airline is emphasizing the significance of not deceptive the general public.
The airline claims that its determination to sue the passenger displays “its dedication to sustaining a excessive normal of security and safety, whereas additionally safeguarding its repute towards dangerous and inaccurate public perceptions.”
The airline is pursuing authorized motion even after the passenger retracted his publish and apologized, expressing remorse for his swiftly written publish. He even needed to apologize to Thai Airways administration in individual on his subsequent journey to Thailand.
This simply appears to be how enterprise is usually carried out in Thailand, and I discover it very unusual. I don’t perceive the purpose of drawing much more consideration to this incident. And severely, have you ever appeared on the feedback part of an airline Fb web page lately? If baselessly criticizing the airline have been unlawful, half of the US could be in jail…
Backside line
We regularly see Thailand’s defamation legal guidelines in motion with unfavorable resort critiques, however on this case an airline diversion is taking middle stage. A passenger criticized Thai Airways’ determination to divert a flight, which admittedly was a silly declare to make.
The airline is now pursuing authorized towards the passenger, primarily based on Thailand’s defamation legal guidelines. The airline claims that it’s doing this as a way to preserve excessive security requirements, and safeguard its repute.
What do you make of this Thai Airways lawsuit?
