An allegedly drunk passenger caused such chaos on a recent easyJet flight that the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing. The New York Post was reported.
Flight U28235 departed London Gatwick Airport on Tuesday afternoon and was bound for Kos International Airport in Greece. Shortly after take-off, the plane experienced some turbulence, which significantly unsettled one of the passengers, who was said to have consumed several whiskey cocktails.
As seen in videos posted on social media, the unidentified man left his seat as the plane cruised at an altitude of 30,000 meters and berated his fellow passengers, calling the Airbus A320 “garbage”. After exchanging harsh words with some of his fellow passengers, the man allegedly hacked the plane's intercom system and fought with flight crew before being pushed back to his seat and taken into custody. The whole incident was so upsetting that the pilots were forced to divert to Germany, where they landed at Munich International Airport one hour and 44 minutes after takeoff.
In a video posted on TikTok, law enforcement officers board the plane and take the man into custody as the cabin rumbles to a raucous sound. “Get off, loser!” shouts one of the passengers from the back of the plane, showing the middle finger.
@charlotte_keen1 Live emergency landing in Munich #fyp #easyjet #travel
♬ original sound – Charlotte
In a statement NYPeasyJet confirmed that the incident was the result of “a passenger behaving in a disruptive manner on board”. The statement continued: “Safety is easyJet's top priority and our cabin crew are trained to assess and act quickly and appropriately in any situation to ensure the safety of the flight and other passengers is never compromised. Although such incidents are rare, we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behavior on board.”
Last week, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary suggested that airports should limit the sale of alcoholic drinks to passengers to avoid incidents like this, allowing just two drinks before boarding.
“It's not that easy for airlines to identify drunk people at the gate, especially if they're boarding with two or three other people,” O'Leary explained. “As long as they can stand up and shuffle, they get through. Then when the plane takes off, we see the misbehavior.
“We don't want to offend people to drink,” O'Leary continued. “But we don't let people drink [and] drive, yet we put them on airplanes at 33,000 feet all the time.”