Police were called to deal with disruptive passengers aboard an easyJet plane, causing a flight to Egypt to be delayed by 30 hours.
Flight EZY3077 from Belfast International to Hurghada was due to take off at 12.55pm on Saturday 3 January, but did not leave until well over a day later at 7.43pm on Sunday.
The airline said that a group of customers was “behaving disruptively on board”, and as a result, the plane was “attended by police” before it had a chance to take off.
In a statement, easyJet said it took such incidents seriously and did not “tolerate disruptive behaviour”.
“Unfortunately, this delay led to the crew reaching their safety-regulated operating hours, which has resulted in the flight being rescheduled to tomorrow [Sunday] and we are providing customers with hotel accommodation and meals,” the airline added.
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet's highest priority, and while this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused.”
The rescheduled flight was due to depart at 6.45am, however weather and take-off slot issues caused the flight to be delayed another 13 hours, Belfast International airport told BBC News.
It is unclear what the disruptive passengers did to cause the flight to be rescheduled. However, it is not the first time the behaviour of those on board has caused travel disruptions.
In September last year, hundreds of passengers were stuck in Malaga airport after a disruptive passenger incident “traumatised” the flight crew of another easyJet flight.
The flight, which was due to travel to Liverpool, was cancelled after three passengers from the inbound flight were escorted out of the jet bridge tunnel by police.
The captain refused to continue the flight after “shouting and screaming” passengers caused a commotion on board.
After the disruptive passengers were removed, others were advised to see if they could board another flight or book a hotel, which would be reimbursed by the airline.
The Independent has contacted Belfast International airport for comment.
Read more: ‘Drunk’ easyJet passengers ‘traumatised’ crew as Malaga flight cancelled before take-off
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