Rowdy British stag party force easyJet flight to divert before being marched off the plane after vaping in their seats and abusing cabin crew

Daily Mail​

6 days ago

Members of a rowdy British stag party group have been marched off an easyJet plane after causing it to be diverted.
Six men were escorted off the aircraft at Faro in Portugal after allegedly vaping in their seats and abusing cabin crew members, following take-off at London Gatwick.
Witness Arron Davies, who was travelling with his friends named Mike and Scott, told of feeling disgusted by the events on the flight.
He suggested two group members on the stag do ruined the experience for the rest.
Mr Davies claimed the pair were vaping in their seats while drinking heavily and being abusive towards the plane's stewards.
During the easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Marrakesh in Morocco, the men were allegedly warned six times before staff took action.
Arron, Mike and Scott, from Newport in south Wales, watched on in horror as the pilot announced the flight would land at the airport in Faro, Portugal.
The diverted aircraft was greeted by eight Portuguese police officers who dealt with the group.
Two men were led off, while the other four frustrated stag do members made their way off the plane.
Mr Davies said: 'The four friends were annoyed that their two mates had ruined their trip.
'The men were vaping in their seats and toilet, drinking heavily and to my opinion already drunk or close to when boarding.
'They were being abusive towards staff on the flight and I think they had an undertone of homophobia toward the head steward.
'They were being loud and using a lot of bad language despite children being on the flight.'
Mr Davies alleged: 'They were warned about six times, but every time the one man muttered when the staff walked away, making the problem worse.
'One of the men gave up and walked towards the exit when he realised how serious his actions were being taken.
'The other man stayed in his seat and was escorted out by up to eight police officers, four getting in the plane from either side.
'The flight steward was very good at his job dealing with this issue on the flight, he gave them many chances.
'I would call the guy a true asset to easyJet - his level of professionalism was on point, even though a lot of abuse was aimed at him.
'He kept his composure and made me feel I was still safe even with the drama happening in front of me.'
An easyJet spokesperson said: 'This flight from London Gatwick to Marrakech on 19 May diverted to Faro and was met by police upon arrival due to a group of passengers behaving disruptively onboard.
'Once the passengers had left the aircraft. The flight then continued to Marrakech.
'Our cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time.
'The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJet's priority and we do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard.'
The complaints about this incident come as footage emerged of the moment a passenger was punched in the face by an airport worker after screaming homophobic abuse at EasyJet staff.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was heard shouting abuse at the airline's staff after apparently being refused entry to the plane.
He then turned his ire at his fellow passengers and started threatening them for 'staring' at him during his tirade.
The incident took place at Manchester Airport as passengers boarded a flight to Crete, although a spokesperson for Manchester Airports Group declined to comment on the matter.
Footage shared online showed the man telling a flight attendant trying to calm him down: 'You're a ripoff artist, you're a f***** - I'll knock your f***ing hat off.
'Come on then, are we gonna have a little f***ing scrap or what you f***ing f*****, you little k***head?'
''I paid three, four hundred quid for the flight and you're telling me I'm not allowed on the flight.'
After being asked by the attendant, 'Can you stay here for a few minutes, sir?', the customer replies: 'You f***ing little k***head, I've paid for the flight.'
The incident took place last summer, though video of it has only recently come to light.
A spokesperson from EasyJet told MailOnline: 'This flight from Manchester to Chania was attended by police before departure due to a passenger behaving disruptively during boarding. Police attended the aircraft and the customer was not allowed to travel.
'EasyJet's cabin crew are trained to assess all situations and act quickly to ensure that the safety of the flight is not compromised at any time.
'We will not tolerate disruptive or aggressive behaviour towards our crew or other passengers.
'The safety and wellbeing of our passengers, crew and ground agents is always easyJet's priority.'
Meanwhile, a Ryanair flight recently saw staff forced to strap an 'unruly' passenger to his seat, using spare belts after he refused to sit down during landing.
The passenger aboard the flight from Manchester to Rhodes in Greece on April 3 was shouting at cabin crew who onlookers said had confiscated two bottles from him and refused to serve him alcohol.
He was called out for failing to follow orders to sit down during landing, before the plane's pilot aborted the descent and then circled round before finally landing.
Video shared showed employees and other passengers huddled around the man and a member of staff shouting: 'Sit down, now.'
Passenger Emily, 26, who filmed the incident, said: 'The flight was going completely fine until the cabin crew came up to me and my partner at the front of the plane and asked us if we were travelling together and if we could be separated because a little girl needed to come down to the front of plane with her dad because a man was being disruptive.
'We were together so they asked someone else instead who moved and that's when I got made aware of this guy being really disruptive at the back of the plane.'
She described how cabin crew had to get two spare seatbelts and tried pinning the man down on his seat.
She added: 'He got out of the seat again. Staff were shouting at him, telling him to sit down and he was squaring up to staff.
'He had already had two bottles of alcohol confiscated off him.'
She said that airline employees had warned over the intercom anyone caught drinking alcohol purchased at Duty Free before the flight would be apprehended by police upon landing unless they put it away, in which case no further action would be taken.
Emily said: 'As we were supposed to come down to land, I could hear cabin crew shout at him to sit down.
'We had to go back up to circle the island until he would sit down again which was quite scary.
'Once [we] had landed we all had to stay put while police came up to take him off. He got taken off on his own.'
A spokeswoman for Ryanair said at the time: 'The crew of this flight from Manchester to Rhodes on April 3 called ahead for police assistance after a passenger became disruptive onboard.
'The aircraft was met by local police upon arrival at Rhodes Airport and this passenger was removed.
'Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour, ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption.'