Latest news with #flightdiversion
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Rowdy British stag party force easyJet flight to divert before being marched off the plane after vaping in their seats and abusing cabin crew
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.'
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Delta flight from Detroit to Los Angeles diverted after dog becomes ill
A plane carrying nearly 200 people was diverted on its way to Los Angeles after a dog fell ill on Monday. Delta Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement provided to KCAL News, saying that the plane landed early so that the four-legged passenger could receive care. Delta flight 694 took off from Detroit and landed in St. Paul, Minnesota, after a veterinarian onboard assisted the dog. "The safety of our customers and people comes before everything else at Delta," reads a statement provided to KCAL News from Delta Airlines. "That's why Delta flight 694 diverted to MSP to ensure a cabin pet that became ill received proper care." Delta said 181 customers and six crew members were onboard at the time. Upon arrival in Minnesota, medical personnel took the dog into their care. The airline didn't immediately update the current status of the dog. The diversion delayed customers by about 2-and-a-half hours. The flight eventually landed safely at LAX.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Is there a doctor on the plane? Medical diversions of flights are on the increase
Tuesday's easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt had made excellent progress in the first hour. But while it was approaching Augsburg in southern Germany, the pilots of the Airbus A320 declared they were diverting to Munich because of a 'passenger welfare issue'. I do not know the details, but I hope the traveller in question is now in good shape. The plane remained on the ground for 90 minutes – which by the standards of such incidents is speedy. By the time it reached the Egyptian airport, the sun had long set; passengers were two hours behind schedule. The inbound flight was commensurately delayed, and there will be some tired passengers – and airline crew – who were deprived of some well-deserved sleep after the early hours arrival in the UK. By recent standards they were relatively fortunate. Last month British Airways passengers from the Bahamas to London lost half a day after being diverted not once but twice along the way. Flight BA252 began its overnight journey from Nassau to London Heathrow, which normally takes eight hours, but diverted to Gander in Newfoundland, Canada, due to a passenger falling ill. There followed something of a flightpath that emulated the protracted transatlantic journeys that preceded the jet age. The Boeing 777 continued its eastbound journey, but with the crew approaching the limits of their duty hours the plane diverted for a second time – to Keflavik in Iceland. A fresh crew was flown up from the UK on a special flight, and nursed the plane and passengers back to Heathrow. The plane arrived 11 hours behind schedule. If someone falls ill on an aircraft, naturally the captain will make a decision in the best interests of the poorly passenger. They can appeal for any medically trained people on the plane to help out, and also to advise on whether the plane should land as soon as possible. As with all things to do with aviation, an abundance of caution will be applied – and, if deemed necessary, the plane will divert to a location where good medical help is immediately available. Places such as Gander are well-equipped to deal with medical emergencies. The cost to the airline is irrelevant when set against the survival of a passenger. But the long and winding flightpath from the Bahamas to London will have cost British Airways somewhere north of £100,000 due to elements such as operating the special flight and welfare costs for delayed passengers. And soon, I predict, carriers will be more challenging about passengers' fitness to fly. Medical diversions are becoming more frequent, which I put down to three reasons. The first is simple demographics. People are thankfully living longer and deciding to travel by air in their eighties and nineties. The older the passenger, the greater the risk of inflight complications. Next, average aircraft size is increasing over time. The more people on board, the higher the risk that one of them will need medical attention. Between London and New York, to reduce the risk of a medical diversion you should travel on a JetBlue narrow-bodied plane rather than a big Boeing 777 or Airbus A350 belonging to British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. The third factor is flight length: ultra-long-haul routes such as Hong Kong-London are becoming more common. The longer the flight, the more scope for the stresses of flying to afflict one of the passengers on board. Airlines are not going to shorten their routes or shrink their planes. So the obvious target is older passengers. Many will see this as unfair discrimination: plenty of diversions involve much younger passengers, and a fair number of octogenarians are in excellent shape. But I predict that before long, anyone aged 80 or above will need to complete a medical questionnaire before being allowed on board a flight.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Unruly passenger kicked off flight, tackled by police for vaping, proceeds to headbutt doors and windows
She really went up in smoke. A Ryanair flight had to be diverted following an epic meltdown from an inebriated female passenger, who ultimately headbutted doors and windows after getting confronted over vaping during her flight. 'I didn't know what to do; I felt intimidated and threatened by her, and so did all the other passengers,' eyewitness Blair Morgan, 18, told Jam Press of the incident, which occurred May 18 during a flight from Tenerife, Spain to Glasgow, Scotland. Morgan, who was returning home from vacation on the Canary Island, captured her antics in a video with more than 1.9 million views on TikTok. It shows the whole saga from the woman being confronted by security personnel to her getting escorted onto the tarmac, and finally attacking the windows on an airport bus despite being handcuffed. The kerfuffle kicked off at around 10 p.m. when the hellion was confronted over using an electronic smoking device during the flight on the low-cost European carrier, which reportedly prompted her to throw a tantrum. 'Being on the plane before she was removed [was] scary,' said Morgan, a Glasgow-based sales assistant. 'She was harassing everyone and using horrible speech toward them and the staff on board.' The situation got so ugly that pilots diverted the flight to Faro, Portugal and called ahead for police assistance so they could offload the mile-high miscreant upon arrival. Unfortunately, her meltdown was far from over. 'Upon being approached by PSP (Public Security Police) officers, the passenger became aggressive and uncooperative,' said a rep for the force. 'Showing visible signs of intoxication, she had to be escorted off the aircraft.' They added, 'while inside the airport bus, the individual began kicking and headbutting the doors and windows.' For her own safety, authorities restrained the woman and applied handcuffs, but she continued to 'behave aggressively' and headbutt the vehicle windows, per the police spokesperson. As a result, the first aid team was called to the scene, after which the woman was transported to Faro Hospital and placed under observation. Morgan said that 'everyone was thankful she was off the flight, as she was [causing] distress with her actions.' Ryanair has since addressed the incident in a statement. 'Ryanair has a strict zero-tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behavior, ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption,' said a spokesperson.
CTV News
5 days ago
- CTV News
Flight from Tokyo diverted to Seattle after passenger tries to open exit doors
The wing of an an All Nippon Airways (ANA) aircraft is seen during a flight above Japan's Shizuoka prefecture on December 9, 2024. A flight from Tokyo to Houston was diverted to Seattle on May 25 after a passenger tried to open an exit on the plane in flight, according to the FBI and a spokesperson for the Port of Seattle. (Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource) A flight from Tokyo to Houston was diverted to Seattle on Saturday after a passenger tried to open two of the plane's exit doors, according to the FBI and a spokesperson for the Port of Seattle. The crew and passengers restrained the person, who was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation after landing, the FBI said in a statement. All Nippon Airways Flight 114 was traveling from Japan's Haneda Airport to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston when it was diverted 'due to an unruly passenger,' the airline said. The plane – a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – had been in the air for about 10 hours when it landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport around 4 a.m. local time, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. 'Port of Seattle Police were called due to reports of a passenger who attempted to open exit doors during the flight,' spokesperson Chris Guizlo told CNN Sunday. No injuries were reported among the remaining passengers and flight crew, Guizlo added. 'Our report shows the flight diverted due to a passenger disturbance,' a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN Sunday. Upon arrival, a second passenger became unruly while on the tarmac in Seattle, according to All Nippon Airways. The person was frustrated at the flight diversion and punched the bathroom door, the FBI said. The person was 'removed for unruly behavior before the plane departed SEA for Houston,' Guizlo noted. 'This was unrelated and the passenger was deplaned without incident.' No charges related to the incident have been filed, the FBI added. The flight continued to Houston, landing just before 1 p.m. local time without incident, according to the airline and FlightAware. In-flight disturbances have surged A similar diversion happened in April when a flight carrying more than 200 people from Bali, Indonesia, to Melbourne was forced to turn around after a passenger tried to force open a plane door as the aircraft flew over the Indian Ocean, according to low-cost carrier Jetstar. In the United States, the FAA has a zero-tolerance policy for unruly passenger behavior, which surged to a record high in 2021, with nearly 6,000 reported incidents. Reports have declined significantly since then, but 2023 still saw more than 2,000 incidents, FAA figures show. In 2023, more than 400 enforcement actions were initiated and $7.5 million in fines were levied against such passengers. An unruly passenger last November tried to force open a plane door on a flight from Milwaukee, injuring an attendant and prompting fellow passengers to duct-tape him. The man allegedly told a flight attendant that he wanted, and needed, 'to exit the aircraft now,' according to a report from the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Department of Public Safety. Also last year, a man was charged in the unprovoked beating of a passenger aboard a United Airlines flight after he repeatedly punched the person until blood was drawn. By Amanda Musa, CNN
