Drunk easyJet passenger forces emergency landing at 30,000 feet, claiming captain was ‘rubbish’
An allegedly drunk plane passenger caused midair chaos and terrorized others onboard an easyJet flight, forcing the pilots to divert course and make an emergency landing.
Flight U28235 took off from London Gatwick Airport in the UK just after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday heading for Kos International Airport in Greece.
The Airbus A320 flew through some turbulence during the scheduled four-hour flight, which didn’t sit well with one passenger, who had gotten intoxicated from whiskey.
The allegedly drunken passenger said the captain was “rubbish” and stood up to disrupt the flight as the plane cruised at over 30,000 feet.
EasyJet said the emergency landing stemmed from a “passenger behaving disruptively onboard.”
During the flight, the unidentified man got into a war of words with other passengers, which led to a brawl and the unruly traveler being detained.
An emergency landing was made at Munich International Airport an hour and 44 minutes after takeoff, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
German police boarded the plane, handcuffed the passenger and removed him from the flight as others onboard cheered, video posted to TikTok captured.
“Get off, you loser,” one furious passenger yelled from the back of the plane as police escorted the disorderly traveler off.
Another passenger was given a round of applause as he reportedly held the man down until “Captain Mike landed us safely.”
As police sorted out the incident, passengers taunted the disruptive flyer by chanting lyrics from rapper KRS-One’s “Sound of da Police.”
“The cabin crew were great and very brave but the whole drama was very upsetting,” a source told the outlet.
During the midair episode, the passenger reportedly broke the onboard intercom and fought with the flight crew, according to the Sun.
“Safety is easyJet’s highest priority and our cabin crew are trained to assess and act quickly and appropriately in all situations to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time,” the airline told The Post. “While such incidents are rare, we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behavior onboard.”
The remaining passengers onboard disembarked the plane and received hotel and meal accommodations overnight before the flight departed Munich for Greece on Wednesday afternoon.
“While this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused,” the airline added.
Last month, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary called for airports to place a two-drink limit on alcoholic beverages for flyers.
O’Leary believes that airports need to limit “the amount of alcohol that can be sold to any passenger to two alcoholic drinks” to help reduce instances of airline passengers becoming disruptive on flights, according to the Independent.
“In the same way that you have to show your boarding pass when you go through (stores) to buy cigarettes or alcohol, we believe you should show your boarding pass to buy an alcoholic drink at a bar at an airport, and you shouldn’t be served more than two alcoholic drinks, particularly when flights are delayed,” he said.
Ryanair, an Irish ultra-low-cost carrier, and other European airlines have seen a “spike” in disruptive passengers onboard planes, “particularly this summer,” O’Leary said in an interview with the outlet.