Flight Diversion
 

Several years ago a family member was on a flight from JFK-LHR, which was diverted to DUB due to an electrical fault onboard. His final destination was actually SNN and DUB would not have been a million miles away but the airline would not allow him to leave the airport and insisted he wait in the lounge along with the other pax for 4-5 hrs and then continue to LHR on the same aircraft. Would this still be the policy today and in general would there have been any repercussions if he had simply left?!

Flight Diversion
 

He'd probably had to wait for his luggage anyway, unless you're travelling with hand luggage only of course. I do think this is still policy, but I don't see any repercussions happening if you just leave

Not for the individual immediately but it would probably require removing the luggage and possibly rescreening the aircraft.

Flight Diversion
 

He was only travelling with hand luggage but would be the type of person to follow the rules, as opposed to just bending them a little :)

Think of the miles he would have missed out on if he had bailed out at DUB instead of continuing to LHR and back to SNN. I mean we're talking about whopping 370 miles! ;)

That might have been a factor in his final decision!;)

Assuming he left the airport, what is the procedure followed by the airline in this case ? Notify authorities in DUB or LHR of missing pax ? How does that change the flight's manifest ? Or it becomes a totally new DUB-LHR flight ?

Just curious!