06 October 2023 , 09:37
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A woman who was reportedly hitting a man over the head with a carrier bag onboard an Easyjet flight has forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.
The plane was heading to Liverpool's John Lennon airport from Dalaman in Turkey but the pilot made the choice to bring it down at Venice as three passengers were behaving disruptively onboard. The aircraft, which took off at 9.55pm on Wednesday, was then met by Italian police when it landed.
The passengers were escorted off by officers in Italy. Neil Houlker, from Nelson in Lancashire, was onboard the plane with his wife and daughter. He said: "We boarded the plane in Dalaman and there were two and three people missing. The plane was due to depart early but they had to wait for these people.
"This lady boarded the plane and was shouting 'where's row 31', she had quite obviously been drinking. As she was shouting, two of the cabin crew looked at each other, the woman should never have been allowed on the plane. We were at the front of the plane and they were at the back and the cabin crew had to keep coming to speak to them. It was just general disruption, shouting, swearing and drinking.
"There was a free seat behind us and a man was moved because of the disruption. The pilot had to do an announcement to say they would not tolerate any disruption."
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Neil told the Liverpool Echo he noticed the plane starting to descend and asked a member of cabin crew if the plane was being diverted, but they couldn't say. He said: "They announced we were being diverted and four Italian police officers come onto the plane.
"The woman started shouting, there was a man who must have been travelling with her and was trying to plead his innocence saying it was all her and not him. She hit him over the head with a carrier bag, I don't know if anything was in it. A bottle of vodka was also taken from them but there wasn't that much left. There were children onboard the plane who shouldn't have had to have seen that."
An easyJet spokeswoman confirmed three people were removed from the plane by police. After its emergency landing the flight continued on to Liverpool, where it arrived in John Lennon airport around two and a half hours late.
The spokeswoman added: "easyJet can confirm that flight EZY3406 from Dalaman to Liverpool yesterday diverted to Venice where the aircraft was met by police due to three passengers behaving disruptively onboard.
"The flight then continued to Liverpool once the passengers were removed. easyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time. Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate disruptive behaviour onboard. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet's highest priority."