British Airways ejected an entire family from one of its flights after a row over one of the group being downgraded to economy.
The upper-class family, including a UK barrister, were told to leave the airplane after the crew refused the family's request to let the child's nanny sit with them in business class.
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In the end police boarded the flight after the dispute continued before take-off.
Charles Banner QC said he was “upset” when the argument started, reports our sister title the Daily Express.
Mr Banner said he paid for business class but their nanny's seat had been downgraded because BA had oversold the seats.
He said: "If BA had told me that the nanny could not sit with us in business then we would not have travelled and could have got a later flight.
“But they only told us that when we got to the boarding gate.”
Speaking to the Mail Online, he added: “I behaved perfectly but I was challenging the cabin crew because it was the right thing to do.
"The pettiness and vindictiveness of the staff caused this.
“I was being very polite about the whole thing.”
Mr Banner estimated the whole incident cost him £4,000 including flights and transport.
He added: “The police escorted our family back through immigration.
“They made clear that this was just standard protocol and that no offence had been alleged or committed.”
A spokesman for BA said: “We do not tolerate disruptive behaviour and the safety of our customers and crew is our top priority.”
Although no action was taken by officials on this occasion, globally, there has been a rise in violence and disputes on aircraft.
In the United States alone, the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA reported 4,837 incidents on flights in 2021.
Prosecutors however brought criminal charges to only one incident.
Many disputes were sparked by seating arrangements or mask protocols.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, disturbances and violent incidents on planes have been on the rise, and flight attendants have had enough.
The rise of incidents — and what some flight attendants described as a lack of accountability — has forced some to reconsider whether or not they want to remain in the industry.
One flight attendant who wished to withhold her name told Business Insider: “Every month we sit there and think 'Oh, okay. They can't get worse than this, the passengers.'
“Then something happens and they do and it's just really disheartening,
"It's a job that you obviously get into cause you love it and you love being around people and helping people.
“It's just, we're all burnt out.
“Everybody I talk to is burnt out."
She continued talking about the rise in frequency of the incidents.
The flight attendant said: "It used to be really that every few weeks you'd have an incident or something and you have to file a report, but now it's like every single flight there is an incident,
"If you have a flight where nobody's yelling at you and you don't have to deal with people with a mask or anything, then you just sit there afterwards with the other flight attendants like, 'Oh my God. I love passengers.' That's how rare it is."
Another attendant who also wished to remain anonymous also spoke to the same source saying: "We had to divert a few planes that I was on for violence,
"A lot of them were alcohol-induced and we were the only airline for most of the pandemic that actually served alcohol in coach."
One incident he described involved a group of women who tried to help themselves to liquor locked up in the aeroplane galley and got physical with another flight attendant who told them to take their seats.
He said he had to step in and restrain them.
The plane then landed and police took the women into custody, but he said it was unfortunate the flight had to divert course because of the incident.
