A Canadian family could find themselves sued for more than $50,000 after causing an international flight to be diverted to Bermuda.Sunwing flight 454 from Halifax to the Dominican Republic landed in Bermuda on Friday evening after reports of a disruption involving three of the plane’s passengers.David McNeil Sr, 54, Donna McNeil, 52, and David McNeil Jr, 22, all from Mabou, Nova Scotia, were each charged in Magistrates’ Court yesterday in connection with the altercation.Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told the court that shortly after the aircraft pulled away from the gate Mr McNeil Jr left his seat to use the bathroom.The plane’s flight crew however instructed him that he had to remain seated during take-off.Minutes into the flight, Mr McNeil Jr again attempted to access the bathroom and was again turned away. He was followed by his father who attempted to open the locked door while crew members repeatedly ordered him to return to his seat.Donna McNeil also became involved, attempting to persuade the flight crew to let her son into the bathroom.When the bathrooms were unlocked, Mr McNeil Jr quickly used the bathroom, followed by his father who the court heard slammed the bathroom door.Leaving the lavatory, he told a flight attendant: “You f***ing a**hole. I p****d all over the floor.”Two hours later, a crew member noticed Mr McNeil Jr coming out of the plane’s bathroom smelling strongly of smoke.The crew searched the bathroom for cigarette butts, but found none. The decision was then made to divert the plane to Bermuda to remove the McNeil family.The three defendants were arrested by Bermuda Police shortly after the plane landed on Friday evening, and a subsequent search of Mr McNeil Jr revealed a package of cigarettes and a lighter in his pants pocket.Appearing in court today, McNeil Sr pleaded guilty to behaving in a disorderly manner after calling a member of the flight crew a "f***ing a**hole," while Donna McNeil, admitted disobeying a lawful command on the flight.Mr McNeil Jr was charged with smoking on the aircraft, but prosecutors elected to offer no evidence after he denied the allegation.Lawyer Victoria Pearman said that the trip was a family vacation gone awry, and that tensions were high because of delays in the flight's departure.She said McNeil Jr needed to use the rest room "urgently" and the family found the cabin crew's response "heavy handed".Ms Pearman said the error in judgement would prove costly with or without a fine, with the family having already lost out on a prepaid vacation in addition to paying for several days in Bermuda and their inevitable flight home."It just seems that this could have all been done another way," she said. "Even though all offences before this court are serious, given the human element of this, the court may consider that this is a one-off and unlikely to happen again."Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner fined McNeil Sr and Donna McNeil $500 each for their offences, ordering that the fines be paid forthwith or they would could face up to ten days in prison.Daryl McWilliams, vice president of media relations with Sunwing Travel, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) that the company is seeking to get compensation from the family.“We are going to pursue legal action against the passengers to recover our out-of-pocket expenses which at the moment are estimated to be between $45,000 and $50,000,” he said.“ When we have the final tally from all invoices paid relating to this incident our legal department will proceed to recover our expenses through the courts.He explained the airline paid for hotel rooms in Bermuda for the flight’s 170 other passengers.And Mr McWilliams said because the aircraft was fuelled for travel to Punta Cana it was overweight when it landed in Bermuda. As a result, a Sunwing Canadian-trained mechanic had to be flown to Bermuda to inspect the plane."Those people will never get on a Sunwing aircraft again,” he added. “There's no hope. We would have a record of what happened and we wouldn't carry them again."