Brussels Airlines passengers can be seen trying to storm a plane at the airport in video shared online, after their flight was cancelled two days in a row.
Travellers were originally booked to fly from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Brussels, Belgium, on 15 September, but their flight was axed and moved to the following day.
But the same thing happened on Saturday, with technical issues grounding the plane until Sunday.
Some passengers booked on the flight were unwilling to take no for an answer when the 16 September flight was also postponed.
In footage posted to X/Twitter by account Breaking Aviation News and Videos, and credited to “princeofkongo”, travellers can be seen walking across the airfield towards the plane holding their hand luggage.
Once by the aircraft, they confront staff wearing hi-vis jackets in raised voices. Several men and women can be seen shouting at workers and waving their passports before trying to climb the steps up to the Airbus A330 aircraft, at which point staff intervene and lock the staircase.
A crowd of angry passengers quickly gathers around the plane.
“Brussels Airlines passengers attempt to storm the aircraft following the cancellation of their flight from Kinshasa for the 2nd day in a row since Friday,” read the video caption.
Breaking Aviation News and Videos went on to report that “OO-SFF has been stuck at the DRC airport due to technical issues. When the passengers heard the news, about seventy furious passengers stormed onto the tarmac and gathered around the aircraft leaving the crew inside.”
They added: “Ground staff, security and police were able to keep the passengers from storming the aircraft and were returned to the terminal building 45 minutes later.”
“There was indeed some unrest at Kinshasa airport on Saturday, 16 September, due to the second cancellation,” an airline spokesperson told Insider.
They confirmed that the postponed flight finally took off for the Belgian capital on the evening of Sunday 17 September, arriving the following morning.
Brussels Airlines apologised for the inconvenience and said that passengers had been offered hotel accommodation in the interim.
