In-flight disturbances involving disruptive passengers are, unfortunately, becoming more common, particularly on routes from the UK to the Canary Islands. This latest incident, reported by the Scottish press, involves a young male being hauled off the plane in handcuffs after it was diverted to Ireland shortly after take-off.
The incident occurred at around 5:30pm on Wednesday afternoon on Jet2 flight LS155 from Glasgow to Tenerife. The person at the centre of it, a Scottish male in his 20s, caused a commotion aboard the aircraft, as documented by STV News.
The situation escalated to the point where the flight had to be diverted to Shannon Airport in Ireland, approximately 45 minutes after it had taken off.
According to reports he was drunk and had taken his t-shirt off, was shouting, swearing, abusing other passengers and crew, drinking from a duty-free bottle of spirits, and assaulted a woman in her 20s.
After ignoring requests, and due to the fact that there was still four hours of the flight to Tenerife left, the pilot requested a diversion to Shannon and the police to remove him.
Upon landing, Irish Police officers boarded the plane and detained him. However, the man didn’t want to get off the plane because he “was on holiday”. Videos show that officers had to handcuff him and drag him off the plane licking and screaming using a seatbelt extension to restrain his feet as he kept lashing out at them.
The man was subsequently taken to the Clare County police station. "He is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984," stated STV News.
According to a Jet2 spokesperson, the man will get a lifetime airline ban. The airline has confirmed that their teams will "vigorously pursue" the man involved to recover all costs incurred by the diversion, which are believed to add up to a five-figure sum. After the passenger was taken into custody, a standby aircraft and crew were flown to Shannon to take the affected customers along to Tenerife.
Managing Director of Jet2.com, Phil Ward, has apologised to all onboard the flight for what they experienced, describing the incident as "one of the worst cases of disruptive passenger behaviour that we have ever witnessed."