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A Ryanair flight from Agadir to London was forced to divert for an emergency landing in Marrakech on Wednesday after a violent mass brawl broke out between passengers.
Flight RUK3034 was bound for Stansted Airport when a violent altercation over seating arrangements erupted just 36 minutes into the four-hour flight.
The tense interaction had been brewing since boarding according to eyewitnesses.
A man in his late 20s reportedly requested to switch seats with a mother, sat by her own daughter, to sit by his wife and young children.
After the woman refused and the flight had taken off, continued threats from the man prompted the passenger’s husband to defend his wife.
“It was like the flight from hell. And it all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats,” a fellow passenger told The Sun.
They added: “They were trying to punch each other. One of the families was part of a larger group so other passengers started to join in.”
Video footage then shows passengers screaming, pushing and throwing punches in the aisle as cabin crew attempted to intervene.
The irate man can be heard saying: “They think I’m a terrorist. That’s why they’re bringing the whole army here to take me down.
“Give me my f****** bag. I will whack your jaw bruv”.
As the situation escalated, the pilot chose to divert the plane to Marrakech, another Morrocan city, for the “disruptive” passengers to be offloaded from the aircraft.
During the mid-fight altercation, another passenger fell ill and had to be treated with oxygen at 30,000ft.
Moroccan police met the flight on the tarmac and removed nine passengers involved in the mid-flight brawl.
The flight with around 200 passengers on board was delayed overnight after the crew reached their maximum flying hours during the removal.
After another cancellation on Thursday morning, passengers continued their journey to Stansted the next evening (4 July).
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Agadir to London Stansted (3 July) diverted to Marrakech after a small group of passengers became disruptive, and during which time another passenger became ill onboard. Crew called ahead for both medical and police assistance, which met the aircraft upon arrival at Marrakech.
“The small group of disruptive passengers were then removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie.
“The passenger who became ill was provided with oxygen onboard before being treated by airport medics, who determined that they were not fit-to-fly. This passenger refused to disembark and became abusive towards crew and was also removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie.
“As it took almost 2 hours in total to treat and offload these disruptive passengers, the crew reached their permitted flying hours and the flight was delayed overnight.
“Affected passengers were provided with overnight accommodation and transport to/from the airport. This flight departed to London the following day (4 July).
“We sincerely apologise to passengers for this diversion and subsequent delay caused by a small group of disruptive passengers, which was out of Ryanair’s control.”
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