A woman claims she had a huge clump of her hair 'pulled out' and was left with a 'busted lip' after she was subjected to a violent attack on a flight from Manchester to Tenerife. The Ryanair flight bound for the Canary Islands had to make a swift landing in Portugal where a number of passengers were escorted off by police.
On Sunday evening (September 18) excited holiday makers saw their already delayed flight make a diversion and land in the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, where a small number of passengers were removed from the plane after becoming "disruptive". The M.E.N also reported how a 'drunken' man aboard the aircraft had 'urinated' on the seat.
Jade Parrott, 23, from Hyde, was one of the passengers on the flight. She claims a woman, one of those escorted off after the impromptu landing, had charged over to her before attacking her and 'pulling her hair'.
Jade said: "There was a man who was really aggressive and being a nuisance all the way through the flight, but didn't seem to be causing as much harm at first. There was another lady who was really aggravated, and went to attack another female passenger.
"They were split up and the woman who she was fighting with was placed on the seat next to me. Then, the lady who had been attacking her walked back over, grabbed my hair and was pulling at it as we were landing in Portugal.
"I was taken into an ambulance to be checked over because loads of my hair had come out in clumps and my lip was bleeding. I am not sure how it all kicked off to begin with but it was really bad.
"I banged my head on the arm rest of the seat which is how my lip became so swollen. She was just going mad - everyone was shouting and there were so many children on the flight who were scared.
"I am a nervous passenger at the best of times so this just made it a lot worse. I don't know what happened to them after that but they were taken off the plane by police."
Another passenger aboard the same flight on Sunday commended the actions of the 'brilliant' Ryanair staff to the ECHO, adding: “The flight was delayed at Manchester Airport so there was more drinking time. Usually when you get on a delayed flight, the first thing you hear is the captain and cabin crew welcoming you on board and apologising for the delay.
"But straight away the first announcement on the system was ‘anyone found drinking their own alcohol or smoking in the toilets will be dismissed from the plane and if needs be we’ll divert’ so they were aware of this passenger straight away.
“The Ryanair staff handled the situation really well because it wasn’t nice to deal with but they were brilliant."
A Ryanair spokesperson said: "This flight from Manchester to Tenerife (18 Sept) diverted to Porto Santo after a small number of passengers became disruptive inflight. The aircraft landed safely, and these passengers were removed from the aircraft by local police before it continued to Tenerife.”
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