A flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife was forced to divert to Portugal after a “shameful” passenger was seen vaping on board and acting disruptively. Jet2 flight LS727 had taken off from the Scottish capital’s airport at 08.15 and was heading straight to Tenerife South airport.
However, flightradar24 showed that the plane was forced to divert to Porto Santo airport in Madeira so that the passenger could be detained by police officers.
A passenger filmed a video of the incident on the flight, showing a man dressed in black with a crossbody bag strap over his chest, seemingly under the influence of alcohol, staggering down the aircraft aisle as he was approached by the cabin crew.
Another clip of the incident shows several Portuguese officials boarding the plane and escorting the man off the aircraft while other passengers clapped, cheered, and sang ‘goodbye’.
According to reports from Edinburgh Live, a witness said, “the man was acting like an idiot and was vaping as soon as we took off.” Another passenger added, “later on, he was staggering down the aisle. He seemed completely drunk.” Another passenger on the flight commented, “What a way to start our holiday! The Jet2 staff handled the situation very well.”
Threats
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Allegedly, the man in question continued walking down the aisle during landing in Madeira, threatening the staff, before being arrested once the plane was on the tarmac.
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Another witness told the Edinburgh Evening News that passengers on board the flight were “terrified by the abusive behaviour of the man on board, who was drunk-walking through the aisles while the flight crew could not control him, threatening anyone who approached him.” “At one point, he inappropriately touched a flight attendant and that was the last straw. Fortunately, the police were waiting to arrest him when the flight landed.”
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A Jet2 spokesperson issued a statement following the incident saying that their “colleagues and customers should never be treated this way.” They confirmed that: “The Edinburgh to Tenerife LS727 flight was diverted to Porto Santo on Friday so the police could remove a disruptive passenger. The passenger in question behaved shamefully, and as a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour. We would like to thank our crew for how they handled this difficult situation, and we will fully support the authorities with any further investigation and will not hesitate to recover any losses incurred as a result of this diversion. We are pleased to say that the flight continued to Tenerife and wish everyone on board a happy holiday.”
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The spokesperson added that the man is now banned from flying with Jet2 for life after the incident.
In order to discourage future bad behavior might not all the airlines agree that the offender is banned from all airlines. This could be for a set period, say 5 years. At present they just fly with a different carrier.