While such action is normally reserved for the most extreme incidents of danger to the safety of the flight and those aboard, there have been a number of jaw-dropping reasons for a flight diversion over the years.
Last July, a United Airlines (UAL) -) flight from Houston to Amsterdam made an emergency landing in Chicago after one of the passengers in first class grew belligerent after being told that his first choice of meal was not available. A month later, another United flight between Houston and Los Angeles was diverted to Phoenix after one of the passengers reportedly "couldn't get her wine."
Related: An entire flight has been diverted over diaper thought to be a bomb
At the end of November, a Lufthansa (DLAKF) -) plane going from Germany's Munich to Thailand's Bangkok was diverted to New Delhi halfway through the flight due to an argument between a couple onboard.
Passenger reported 'threw food, tried to burn a blanket and shouted at his wife'
As first reported by the Times of India, officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) received communication that flight LH772 needed to make an emergency landing due to a "possible unruly passenger."
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Information provided to airport officials later revealed that a 53-year-old German man "threw food, tried to burn a blanket using a lighter, shouted at his wife and did not follow the instructions issued by the crew." The authorities did not elaborate how the man tried to burn the blanket or got a lighter onboard the flight.
As he grew increasingly belligerent, the pilot chose to divert the flight to the nearest city and hand the case over to India's Central Industrial Security Force. The Thai wife that the man was traveling with was not identified as unruly and chose to continue her journey to Bangkok after her husband was unloaded.
Unruly behavior earned this passenger a permanent Lufthansa ban
Lufthansa spokesperson Tal Muscal later confirmed that "the person in question was handed over to the authorities" and permanently banned from taking Lufthansa flights.
"The passenger has been banned from traveling on Lufthansa Group flights with immediate effect," Muscal said. The Times of India also reported that authorities were weighing whether to hand the passenger over to Delhi Police or send him back to Germany after he apologized for his actions through the country's embassy.
Lufthansa's strict response comes at a time when the industry has been grappling with rising incidents of difficult passengers. Numbers from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) show that there was one unruly passenger on every 835 flights in 2021 but one on every 568 flights in 2022. In the aviation world, the term "unruly" is someone who jeopardizes the safety of the flight according to four categories ranging from "suspicious or threatening behavior" to actions that are "life-threatening."
"The increasing trend of unruly passenger incidents is worrying," IATA Deputy Director General Conrad Clifford said of the findings in July 2023. "Passengers and crew are entitled to a safe and hassle-free experience on board."
Over in the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration has also announced plans to come down harder on passengers who cause disturbances in the air or jeopardize the safety of others.
