Unruly passengers have become more common, and many fliers are getting sick of it. On this flight, they cheered and chanted as a pair was escorted off after forcing a diversion.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
- Police escorted two disruptive passengers off an easyJet flight amid cheers and applause.
- The plane diverted after a couple argued with other travelers and threatened staff, per Scottish media.
- The celebrations highlight how unruly passengers have been more common since the pandemic.
Passengers on an EasyJet flight cheered, clapped, and chanted as police escorted two disruptive fellow fliers off the plane.
Monday's flight from Glasgow to Hurghada, a beach resort in Egypt, descended into chaos as a couple argued with other travelers and threatened staff, according to Scottish newspaper The Daily Record.
Data from Flightradar24 shows the Airbus A320neo turned around four hours into the five-hour flight, and landed in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete.
In a statement shared with Business Insider, easyJet said "two passengers behaving disruptively" were removed from the plane by local police.
A video shared with a number of media outlets shows jubilant passengers applauding and chanting "cheerio" — a common chant at British soccer matches when a player is ejected from the game.
The celebrations highlight the frustration felt by some well-behaved passengers amid a rise in incidents of disruption on planes since the pandemic.
Statistics from the Federal Aviation Administration show unruly-passenger incidents increased nearly 6-fold in 2021 compared to 2019. While numbers have since been falling, they have remained at more than double the pre-pandemic frequency.
One passenger on the flight told The Daily Record: "It was awful. They were arguing with other passengers for half an hour before the crew stepped in."
"The woman was told to sit down seven times over the tannoy as we landed but she kept getting up," he added.
The flight landed in Egypt after midnight, more than two hours after it was scheduled.
"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," said an airline spokesperson.
They added: "Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate disruptive behaviour on board. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always EasyJet's highest priority."