A Ryanair flight en route to Corfu was forced to divert to Italy after two “disruptive” passengers needed to be removed from the plane.
Flight FR2100 left Manchester Airport on Tuesday, 29 April, at 5.30pm for a three-and-a-half-hour flight to Corfu, Greece, due to arrive at 10.40pm.
However, the plane had to change its course last minute and diverted to Bologna after two passengers became disruptive onboard.
Police met the Boeing 737 on arrival and removed the disruptive passengers from the plane.
The flight then continued its journey onward to Corfu that night. Passengers did not arrive until 1.47am local time, around three hours after they were supposed to land.
There were reports that two passengers were involved in a fight on board, the Manchester Evening News reports. They had been seated apart, but later moved seats to sit next to one another.
Footage obtained by the publication shows a woman being carried off the plane by police officers and was attempting to resist them.
The video, taken from the plane window, shows her being carried to a police car at the gate.
A spokesperson for Ryanair told The Independent: “This flight from Manchester to Corfu (29 April) was forced to divert to Bologna after two passengers became disruptive onboard.
“Crew called ahead for police assistance, who met the aircraft upon landing at Bologna and removed these two disruptive passengers before this flight continued to Corfu later that same night.
The airline added it had a “strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour, ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption.”
The incident came less than a week after Ryanair customers travelling from Agadir, Morocco, to Manchester witnessed disruption from a “drunken and aggressive passenger”, which saw their plane divert to Faro, Portugal.
However, the 177 passengers found themselves stranded overnight on the Algarve after Ryanair said the UK Civil Aviation Authority would not permit a replacement aircraft to take off.
After police removed the disruptive passenger, the aircraft was refuelled to continue the journey to Manchester, however, a technical issue was then found that required the attention of an engineer.
Ryanair DAC chief executive Eddie Wilson told The Independent: “It’s utter bull**** that people were put into hotels last night.”
The aircraft is operated by a subsidiary, Ryanair UK, which flies routes that do not serve points in the European Union and was set up after Brexit to allow flights between the UK and countries outside the EU.
A Ryanair UK engineer was not available in Faro, so the airline’s main operating unit, Ryanair DAC, offered to provide an identical aircraft and crew to fly the passengers home, but the CAA refused permission.
A UK Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said: “We encourage UK operators to create strong resilience plans for when planes have to be grounded to minimise the impact on passengers.
“These plans need to be consistent with the legal framework that applies to UK aviation following EU Exit, which requires UK-based companies to have sufficient UK registered aircraft to operate their schedule.
“Ryanair has been well aware of this position for a considerable period of time. Ryanair UK has chosen to operate a flight schedule that requires 18 aircraft, but has only allocated 15 aircraft to its UK registered business to fulfil this schedule.
“Ryanair has prioritised the placement of aircraft within their other EU based business over the UK, leaving UK passengers at a higher risk of disruption.”
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