Flight Diverts Followed By A BlackBerry Termination

A couple of programmers get hammered on a plane. Sounds like the setup to a hilarious punch-line. Research in Motion (RIM) programmers George Campbell, 45, and Paul Alexander Wilson, 38 got drunk on a nonstop flight from Toronto to Beijing and proceeded to pick a fight with the flight attendants. It took the entire crew to subdue the men, who were eventually handcuffed to seats on the plane on Monday. Why doesn’t this ever happen on my flight?

I’m really starting to doubt the existence of flight marshals outside of movies. Their uncontainable rowdiness forced the captain to turn the flight around and drop them off in Vancouver. They had just passed Alaska…that’s a 2,000 mile diversion and thousands of dollars in fuel. When asked the captain said he didn’t want to make an emergency landing in China where the plane could be impounded. The damn Chinese and their hatred for America. How ignorant. Anyways the RIM programmers, who program exclusively for BlackBerry, were fired on Monday for the scandal. In a statement RIM said they didn’t want to be correlated to such behavior and that their employees “are expected to act, at all times, with integrity and respect”.

Why does Air Canada care if a couple of their passengers are a little bit drunk, aren’t they known for being drunk like all the time? And as if being kicked off a flight and fired wasn’t bad enough, the incident and 2,000 mile diversion is costing each programmer $35,878 in restitution, and a yearlong probation with no contact to the crew or the ability to fly Air Canada. $70,699.49 and no job? A couple of programmers get hammered on a plane, and then they get hammered with a $70,699,49 in debt.