Ryanair crew members had to take swift action on a flight when an "unruly" passenger started causing trouble. According to eyewitness reports, the passenger shouted at the cabin crew who took away two bottles of alcohol from him and denied him further service.
The disruptive behaviour escalated as the individual refused to take his seat for landing on the flight from Manchester to Rhodes, managing to break free from restraints which led the pilot to abandon the initial descent and make another attempt to land. Upon touchdown in Rhodes on April 3, police officers were called onto the aircraft to remove the man.
Footage from the incident shows Ryanair staff and passengers circling the man, with shouts heard commanding him to "Sit down, now", followed by images of police escorting him along the aisle.
A 26 year old named Emily captured the event on video, detailing her perspective: "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."
She continues recounting the ordeal: "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. The crew had to get two spare seatbelts and tried pinning him down on the seat."
"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 explained that the flight crew had issued a warning over the intercom that any passenger found consuming Duty Free alcohol before the flight would face police action upon landing unless they stowed it away, in which case no further action would be taken.
Emily recounted: "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. It was eventful."
A representative for Ryanair stated: "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. This is a matter for local police."
English (United States) ·