A flight from Manchester Airport to Turkey was forced to divert to Vienna on Monday morning after a passenger became disruptive and was said to have slapped fellow passengers on board the plane.
The Jet2 flight from Manchester to Antalya departed at 9.15am on Monday morning (March 21) and had been due to land in Turkey around four and a half hours later.
However, after an incident involving a "disruptive" passenger on board, the flight was forced to divert to Vienna almost two and a half hours into the flight, at around 11.30am. It then continued on its journey to Antalya at 1pm, before arriving shortly after 3pm.
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A passenger onboard the aircraft told the Manchester Evening News that a female passenger started being disruptive "about an hour and 20 minutes" into the flight. The passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, said "there was lots of noise".
They added: "Then she came to the front of the plane. She was really angry towards Jet2 staff and wouldn’t calm down. Her voice was getting louder and more aggressive - she was shouting in people’s faces.
“People were saying she was kicking off at the airport before she even got on the plane. Then some people said it was over babies crying on the flight.
“A customer said something and she slapped him in the face. Then a man got up to try and calm the situation before taking her to the back of the plane.”
The passenger said that, at that point, the staff on the plane made the decision to diver to Vienna. It was said that the woman slapped another passenger as she was getting off the plane.
“This is the first time we have had to land because of someone on a flight,” the passenger added. “Jet2 staff handled the whole situation very well. Nobody could help the out-of-control woman once she slapped the passenger.”
Just before 12pm, following the diversion, Jet2 sent a text message to all passengers on board the plane that said: "Hello, we are sorry that due to the disruptive behaviour of a fellow passenger, your flight has been diverted to Vienna. We are working on a situation to get you on your way as soon as possible."
The flight then took off from Vienna at 1pm and arrived at its final destination of Antalya just after 3pm - over an hour later than scheduled. Manchester Airport declined to comment on the situation when asked by the Manchester Evening News, saying it was a matter for the airline.
A Jet2 spokesperson said on Monday: “We can confirm that flight LS895 from Manchester to Antalya diverted to Vienna earlier today so that a disruptive passenger could be offloaded. As a family friendly airline, we take a zero tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour.”
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