There was ‘absolute bedlam’ on board a flight from the UK after a woman began ‘arguing with the cabin crew’.
The unnamed woman, said to be in her 40s, was on a Wizz Air flight from Gatwick to Hurghada, a Red Sea resort in Egypt.
A fellow passenger said she had too much alcohol and began swearing at the crew when they asked her to calm down during the flight on Wednesday.
Micheal Hands, 58, told the Mail: ‘It was absolute bedlam, I’ve never seen anything like it.’
Micheal was onboard the flight with his girlfriend Catherine Roberts, and said: ‘This woman had clearly been drinking all flight and maybe the crew shouldn’t have carried on serving her as it probably led to her kicking off.
‘She was sitting behind me and then she moved seat, but she wasn’t happy and started arguing with the cabin crew.
‘By this point we were two hours into the flight and somewhere over Greece and she kept saying ‘Call the police, call the police’.’
Severe disruption was caused to the flight by the incident, and the pilots on the Airbus A321 made an emergency landing in Athens, Greece, forcing passengers to wait two hours on the ground.
The W95777 can be seen on flight tracking apps making a turn away from its destination and towards the Greek capital.
Passengers were left extremely frustrated by the incident, as delays to the flight had a knock-on impact on crew duty time limitations.
But Micheal added that the crew ‘did their best’.
He said: ‘In the end it just got too much and the captain came on the tannoy and said: “If the unruly passenger doesn’t return to her seat in two minutes we are making an emergency landing.”
‘Of course, there was some booing and jeering at the woman, but nothing happened and in the end we landed at Athens and the police came onboard and took her off – much to everyone’s delight.’
A video of the incident shows the woman being jeered on the flight as she is being escorted off.
One woman shouted: ‘Too late to cry now.’
Another said ‘sorry, doesn’t really cut it’, to which the woman being escorted down the aisle by police replied ‘shut your mouth’.
WizzAir said: ‘We can confirm that a passenger aboard our W9 5777 London Gatwick – Hurghada flight on the 12th of March had to be removed from the flight due to inappropriate behaviour towards our crew.
‘This passenger’s inexcusable conduct forced this flight to divert to Athens where it was delayed for a short time before going on to the destination.
‘This then further disrupted the return flight from Hurghada back to London because of crew duty time limitations.
‘The safety and security of our passengers and crew is our number one priority.
‘Wizz Air has a strict policy against harassment and passenger misconduct and will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to ensure the safety and security of everyone aboard our flights.
‘Wizz Air will be looking to take legal action against this passenger due to the unnecessary disruption caused to our customers.
‘It is completely unacceptable that passengers who work hard to enjoy a trip away are negatively impacted due to one passenger’s failure to behave.’
Some experts have previously warned of potential problems caused by alcohol consumption on flights.
Last year, the Spanish newspaper Majorca Daily Bulletin polled its readers after two ‘serious’ incidents on flights from the UK.
It is not clear what the incidents were, but 72% of readers said they felt booze should be banned on flights.
Budget airline Ryanair also banned alcohol consumption on flights to popular parts of Spain.
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