4 ms·

I don’t know if the airline is lying or not, but the evidence for the airline lying is that the airline claimed Cahill demanded $50k which is “too rich” for an

I don’t know if the airline is lying or not, but the evidence for the airline lying is that the airline claimed Cahill demanded $50k which is “too rich” for an airline so he would never have asked for that much. I just want to point out the ridiculousness of saying $50k is too rich for a company flying planes which require 10s of millions of dollars as an upfront investment followed by 8-$10k per plane in fuel costs alone. So basically $50k isn’t even the fuel cost for flying a single plane from NY to LA. Of course, it’s ridiculous that the airline posted a copy of the passport and not the messages, which is the strongest evidence that they’re lying, not that the $50k demand is too ridiculous.

nkurz 3y ago
Assuming he did ask for $50K (and I have no idea if he did) it seems likely this would have been done over the phone or in person, rather than in an easy to copy email or text. If you are going to make questionable demands, doing it in a deniable hard to prove way seems strictly better. If the "strongest evidence that they're lying" has the easy explanation that there is no hard evidence, I don't think that exonerates him in any way.
strken 3y ago
Aero Dili has two planes in its fleet: a Cessna 207T and a 14 year old secondhand Airbus A320. They started leasing the A320 last year with help from DAE Capital. They operate out of Timor-Leste, so neither they nor their passengers are exactly rolling in cash. They run one 55 minute flight a day to Indonesia and a couple of times a week they extend it to Singapore. It is not ridiculous to say that they might not be able to afford $50k for some random YouTuber. They certainly don't have tens of millions of dollars invested in planes. They have one plane, singular, capable of international flight. Probably they could scrape together the cash if they had to, but from a back-of-the-napkin estimate it'd be more than a week of fuel costs for their regular route-and-a-half.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  And even if they could afford it, they probably don't think it is good value for money. How many extra seats will it help sell them?

nkurz 3y ago

Assuming he did ask for $50K (and I have no idea if he did) it seems likely this would have been done over the phone or in person, rather than in an easy to copy email or text. If you are going to make questionable demands, doing it in a deniable hard to prove way seems strictly better. If the "strongest evidence that they're lying" has the easy explanation that there is no hard evidence, I don't think that exonerates him in any way.

strken 3y ago

Aero Dili has two planes in its fleet: a Cessna 207T and a 14 year old secondhand Airbus A320. They started leasing the A320 last year with help from DAE Capital. They operate out of Timor-Leste, so neither they nor their passengers are exactly rolling in cash. They run one 55 minute flight a day to Indonesia and a couple of times a week they extend it to Singapore. It is not ridiculous to say that they might not be able to afford $50k for some random YouTuber. They certainly don't have tens of millions of dollars invested in planes. They have one plane, singular, capable of international flight. Probably they could scrape together the cash if they had to, but from a back-of-the-napkin estimate it'd be more than a week of fuel costs for their regular route-and-a-half.

londons_explore 3y ago
And even if they could afford it, they probably don't think it is good value for money. How many extra seats will it help sell them?