Drunk passenger doesn’t want to pay airline for loss
Laval man could face $17,400 bill for disrupting Sunwing flight
The man whose rowdy behaviour forced a passenger airplane to return to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last summer, escorted by U.S. military jets, has asked that he not be required to pay back the airline for its losses as part of his sentence.
Quebec Court Judge Pierre Dupras will decide next month whether Charalabos Nassios, 41, of Laval should be forced to pay Sunwing Airlines more than $17,400 for the hotel bills and other costs it incurred when he boarded one of its flights while drunk on July 6 and acted in such a disruptive way that the flight bound for Cuba was forced to return to Dorval escorted by two U.S. Air Force F-15 jets.
Among other things, Nassios threatened to rip a fellow passenger’s nose off and claimed he was part of a Russian gang while the plane was in U.S. airspace. He was arrested when the plane landed in Dorval, and Sunwing had to make arrangements for many of the 170 passengers who were inconvenienced and its employees while they planned another flight to Cuba.
On Sept. 28, Nassios pleaded guilty to assault, uttering threats, mischief and a charge related to
He got drunk and he got on a plane. (Ordering him to pay Sunwing $17,400) is like putting obstacles in his future path.
having violated conditions imposed on him in an unrelated assault case. One of the conditions included a requirement that Nassios not consume alcohol. He was granted bail in October.
Prosecutor Cynthia Gyenizse asked that Nassios be ordered to pay the $17,400 to Sunwing as part of her recommendation that Nassios be sentenced to time served, the equivalent of more than five months, and three years of probation. During the period of probation, Gyenizse suggested, Nassios should not be allowed to travel outside of Quebec. She told Dupras that a pre-sentencing report filed as evidence made no mention that Nassios “has reflected on his actions.”
Nassios’s lawyer, Tom Pentefountas, told Dupras that he and Gyenizse agree on the length of the sentence, but that he disagrees with his client being required to pay back Sunwing. Pentefountas also objected to the travel restriction requested.
The defence attorney also had a different take on the pre-sentencing report and argued his client “poured his heart out” following his arrest last summer. The attorney said that at the time Nassios boarded the flight, a longtime relationship he had been in was falling apart because of Nassios’s abuse of cocaine.
“He has turned a page and he is starting all over again. He has faced up to everything that happened that day,” Pentefountas said while adding that Nassios joined Alcoholics Anonymous. “He got drunk and he got on a plane. (Ordering him to pay Sunwing $17,400) is like putting obstacles in his future path.”
The defence lawyer noted that Nassios has declared bankruptcy and argued he has suffered from the media coverage his arrest produced last summer.
“It is unrealistic to impose a financial hardship on him,” Pentefountas said. “It is useless and unrealistic.
“There is nothing to stop Sunwing from pursuing him in civil court.”
Dupras is scheduled to deliver his decision on April 18.