OREANDA-NEWS. Podolsk city court upheld a suit filed by Aeroflot against Vyacheslav Ismailov - a passenger who had forced the emergency landing of airline's plane. The defendant was pleaded guilty and fined 493,731 rubles (approximately 15 000 USD) to restitute damages as well as cost of state duties totaling 8,137 rubles.

On February 2nd 2013 Ismailov was on board of flight SU 274 Moscow-Phuket. Being alcoholically intoxicated, he behaved disrespectfully towards other passengers and the crew, inflicted blows on two passengers, disobeyed a written warning of the aircraft commander to stop violating rules of behavior on board.

Due to uncontrollable actions of Ismailov menacing the flight operation, the aircraft was diverted to Tashkent airport. The rowdy was removed from the plane and handed over to local authorities. The airline bore considerable losses and the passengers suffered gross inconvenience as well. Later in May, Aeroflot brought an action before the court demanding to recover damages from this incident.

Aeroflot is fully satisfied with the decision of the court. At the same time the airline would like to call public attention to the fact that such incidents caused by disruptive passengers have become an acute problem of the whole Russian airline industry. Thereby Aeroflot continuously supports boosting the measures against disorderly conduct on board including criminal liability for major offenses instead of current administrative actions.

Celebrating its 90-th anniversary in 2013, Aeroflot is Russia's flagship airline and the largest national air company. Proudly being a member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance, Aeroflot with its partnering members provides service to more than 1000 destinations in 178 countries. Aeroflot operates one of the most modern and youngest fleets in Europe counting 139 aircraft formed by Airbus, Boeing and Sukhoi airliners with an average airplane age between five and six years old. In 2012 Aeroflot carried 17.7 million passengers (27.5 million passengers as Aeroflot Group), continuously showing the best results in modern Russia's history. In June 2013 Aeroflot was for the second time awarded by SKYTRAX as The Best Airline in Eastern Europe.