The news headlines were dramatic “Economy passenger handcuffed and led off plane.” Why did the captain detain her and divert the flight? Supposedly because she threw up in a business class toilet. The story sparks many questions that may affect your next flight: Are airline rules the law of the sky? Can an airplane captain arrest you? What happens to you when the plane lands?

First and foremost, here are the details. A Slovakian woman named Edita Kmetova was flying from Vienna to Abu Dhabi aboard Air Berlin. She reports she felt nauseous and found all the economy class toilets occupied. So she rushed into business class and threw up in an unoccupied toilet there.

According to airline personnel, they confronted Kmetova about using the wrong rest room and she became, “aggressive” and began to “shout” and “scream.” One of the captains and other passengers became involved. When she tried to “kick and bite staff” the captain ordered her restrained. The pilot then chose to make an emergency landing at the Erzurum Airport in Turkey and hand her over to the Turkish police. Then the flight continued on to Abu Dhabi without her.

There are, of course, multiple sides to every story. A third point of view comes from Erzurum Airport manager, Abubekir Özcan, who led Kmetova off the plane. He said, “When we were contacted, we thought something serious had happened. When I approached her I saw an elderly woman crying and she was handcuffed…I had her handcuffs removed and escorted her out of the plane.” Özcan added, “The business class toilet is used by a few people while the economy class serves almost 200, when she used it, things got out of hand,” before concluding that the entire incident “upset” him.

First and foremost, who has authority on an international flight? According to the 1963 Tokyo Convention, the captains/commanders of airplanes have the same authority as the captain of a boat in international waters. That is to say they can’t arrest a passenger, but they can detain anyone for the duration of the trip to hand over to authorities when they land.

“The captain…can put you in restraints for the authorities to pick up on the ground if there is a problem, but the captain can’t ‘arrest’ you in the legal sense of the word.”

Chris Lopinto, Airline expert, Huffington Post

So do you need to break the law for the captain to detain you or even kick you off? Not necessarily. The crew will certainly intervene if you do break certain laws though. Eisner Gorin, LLP, specializes in federal cases. And if you break a law aboard a flight landing in the U.S., traveling through U.S. airspace, or diverted to the U.S., you are subject to its federal laws. Eisner Gorin reports that federal crimes aboard an aircraft could include:

• Piracy – 49 U.S.C. 46502,
• Assault – 18 U.S.C. 113,
• Embezzlement and Theft – 18 U.S.C. 661,
• Receiving Stolen Property – 18 U.S.C. 662,
• Murder – 18 U.S.C. 1111,
• Manslaughter – 18 U.S.C. 1112,
• Attempted Murder or Manslaughter – 18 U.S.C. 1113,
• Robbery – 18 U.S.C. 2111,
• Sexual Abuse – 18 U.S.C. 2241, 2242, 2243, 2244,
• Carrying Weapons or Explosives Aboard an Aircraft – 49 U.S.C. 46505(a),
• Conveyance of False Information or Threats Regarding Certain Offenses (Bomb Hoax) – 18 U.S.C. 35,
• Interference with Flight Crew Members or Flight Attendants While in Flight – 49 U.S.C. 46504.

Note that final crime. A passenger yelling or screaming at member of the flight crew, or even interfering with the flight crew’s duties by yelling at another passenger, could be guilty. Certainly a physical altercation with the flight crew could count. But what about refusing to buckle up when the flight crew is obligated to make everyone buckle up? Possibly. And what about using the wrong bathroom? It’s a stretch, but possible.

The long and short of it is that the airplane’s captain is neither judge nor jury. If a captain suspected you of breaking one of the above laws and landed the plane to hand you over to local authorities, the ensuing trial might find you innocent. You could be kicked off an airplane without breaking any laws.

We’ll never know for sure, but Edita Kmetova may have been kicked off her Air Berlin flight without breaking any laws. If that’s true, she might win a future lawsuit. But if her story teaches us anything, it’s that once a captain wants you off their plane, there isn’t much you can do about it.