A couple have slammed Ryanair after a chaotic flight that saw rowdy passengers blast music and swig alcohol straight from bottles.
The husband and wife, from North Lanarkshire, said they were forced to cower in their seats on a flight to Ibiza after air crew failed to control the troublemakers on board.
The couple claim they were subjected to three ‘horrific’ hours of travel when partying passengers got out of hand on their light, the Daily Record reports.
The woman even claimed her husband, who is 58 and suffers from a heart condition, was accosted on the way back from the bathroom by one of the drunken rebels who hit him on the hand before making a rude gesture towards him.
The pair were not the only ones disturbed by the 70-strong group of raucous youths who also allegedly subjected another of other passengers to verbal abuse and harassment during the journey.
The couple said they made a formal complaint to Ryanair and received a “copy and paste” reply on November 26 which took “no responsibility and gave no assurances that it wouldn’t happen again”.
The 55-year-old mum told the Daily Record: “The response from Ryanair was a joke. I didn’t expect any else though to be honest. They’ve got you there because it’s cheap flights but even though it’s a bargain, you shouldn’t have to go through that. Passenger safety comes first.
“There was no control over that plane at all. It was horrific from the minute we got on. There were about 70 of them who all came from the same area. They had a big black speaker at the highest volume you could get which was blaring for three hours.
“They were banging on the roof, taking their tops off, and opening their drink that they had bought at duty free. The only time Ryanair came near them was to serve them more drink. I didn’t even want to go to the toilet because they were getting drunker and drunker.
“My husband went to the bathroom and on his way back, this guy hit my husband’s hand as if to do a high five but then gave him the fingers. The other passengers were getting really annoyed at this behaviour and it could have erupted into a full blown war.”
The woman also claimed that one female passenger was left with no option but to physically shove one of the rowdy men away from her after he continued to bother and harass her.
The chaos continued throughout the entire four hour flight, up until the plane prepared for landing in bad weather on the Balearic island.
“They were banging on the roof, taking their tops off, and opening their drink that they had bought at duty free. The only time Ryanair came near them was to serve them more drink. I didn’t even want to go to the toilet because they were getting drunker and drunker.
“My husband went to the bathroom and on his way back, this guy hit my husband’s hand as if to do a high five but then gave him the fingers. The other passengers were getting really annoyed at this behaviour and it could have erupted into a full blown war.”
“It could have been an absolute riot because they were banging into people, shouting in peoples faces. There could have been a war on that plane.
“People were scared to go to the toilet but they were scared they were going to get head butted or hit with a bottle of Grey Goose that was flying about that they had bought at duty free.
“It was a horrible experience. I get that you’ve got to expect a bit of partying and I understand that. But my husband and I have had a tough year with lots of sad things happening so we thought we’d go away and chill out.
“We got off the flight and were like ‘Oh my God, we need a drink’. I’ve got a boy at 22. If I thought he was behaving like that on a plane with children and a mixed age group, I would be so embarrassed about it because it was horrific.”
The couple have vowed never to fly with Ryanair again after the airline refused to take responsibility for not calming the situation whilst simply apologising for “any inconvenience caused”.
A spokesman for Ryanair said: “A group of passengers on this flight from Edinburgh to Ibiza (25 Sep) became disruptive mid-flight. To diffuse the situation and minimise any disruption to passengers, crew made several announcements throughout the flight and refused to serve more than two alcoholic drinks to each passenger.
"Passengers ceased their disruptive behaviour before landing safely in Ibiza."
