A Ryanair “flight from hell” was diverted for an emergency landing just 36 minutes after takeoff due to a “mass brawl” that broke out between travelers aboard the aircraft, according to passengers.
The flight departed from Agadir, Morocco, to London on Wednesday when the disturbance broke out mid-flight, the Sun reported.
“It was so stressful. It was like the flight from hell,” an unnamed passenger told the outlet. “And it all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats.”
The passenger described how a male passenger had asked a female passenger to switch seats with him so he could sit closer to his family. The woman, who was sitting with her daughter, refused, which triggered an outburst from the man.
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The woman’s husband came to her defense, and the two men came to blows, according to the passenger, who described a subsequent “snowball effect” that led to a “mass brawl.”
“They were trying to punch each other,” the 36-year-old passenger told the outlet. “One of the families was part of a larger group, so other passengers started to join in. Then a lady in the row behind started to have a panic attack because of everything going on. She was screaming and there were kids crying.”
During the chaos, the passenger said a male traveler became ill, and the cabin crew gave him oxygen before landing in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Ryanair told Fox News Digital in a statement that a “small group” of passengers became “disruptive” and that another passenger had become ill during the incident, forcing the pilot to divert to Marrakesh and call ahead for both medical and police assistance.
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Local authorities removed the disruptive passengers while airport medics treated the ill passenger, who the airline confirmed had received oxygen.
When medics determined that the ill passenger was not fit to fly, the passenger refused to leave the plane and became abusive toward the crew, the airline said. Police also removed that passenger from the plane.
The airline said that the disruptions and the subsequent removal of the passengers lasted nearly two hours, forcing the airline to delay the flight until the next day.
All affected passengers were provided with overnight accommodation and transport before the flight eventually departed the following day.
“We sincerely apologize to passengers for this diversion and subsequent delay caused by a small group of disruptive passengers, which was out of Ryanair’s control,” Ryanair said in the statement.
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