Flight forced to turn around due to passenger’s unruly behaviour

An Australian man was arrested and charged on Monday after his unruly behaviour forced a red-eye domestic flight to return to Perth Airport.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed in a statement that the 33-year-old man would appear before the court on Monday.

He was accused of disorderly behaviour and failing to comply with airline staff on board a domestic flight.

This happened after the Sydney-bound JQ989 flight, operated by Jetstar, departed from Perth on Sunday night.

AFP officers received a call from the airline staff about an alleged intoxicated passenger who verbally abused a cabin crew member and failed to comply with directions.

As a consequence of the incident, the flight had to turn around and come back to the airport, and the ruckus also compelled the aircraft to drop fuel in order to land safely.

AFP estimated that the man could face up to a penalty of 27,500 Australian dollars (about 17,653 U.S. dollars) for his offences.

The remaining passengers were provided with overnight accommodation by Jetstar and boarded other replacement flights on Monday morning.