An easyJet flight from the UK was forced to divert due to a group of “unruly” passengers causing disruption onboard.
Flight EZY2011 from Manchester to Tenerife had to land on the neighbouring Canary Island of Lanzarote instead in order to be met by local police on Friday 29 September, delaying the flight’s arrival time by several hours.
Officers boarded the plane and removed four passengers before the flight could continue its journey to Spain’s largest Canary Island, arriving at 1.20pm local time.
The details of their behaviour have not yet been revealed by authorities.
A spokesperson for easyJet told Insider: “Cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
“Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour towards our crew or other passengers.”
The airline’s statement added that “The safety and well-being of our passengers, crew, and ground agents is always easyJet’s priority.”
It’s not the first time troublesome passenger behaviour has forced the airline to make an emergency landing. In April, a flight from Liverpool to Turkey was also met by police on the tarmac in Munich after two people behaved disruptively onboard.
And in June, drunk passengers on board an easyJet plane heading to Turkey from the UK forced the flight to abandon its route and land in Greece – two people were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace, disrupting transport and disobeying the instructions of the flight crew.
Elsewhere, a passenger brawl on a Frontier Airlines flight bound for Las Vegas forced it to divert to Denver in July after two women were filmed screaming at each other in a series of “threatening, expletive-filled rants”.
