LIEGE, Belgium (AP) — Some 90 irate passengers staged a nearly five-hour sit-in on a Ryanair plane in Belgium early Wednesday, refusing to disembark after their flight was diverted due to fog. Authorities said some spat at airport staff.
The passengers, mostly French tourists returning from a Moroccan vacation, refused to leave after the plane landed about midnight at Liege airport because fog had closed down Beauvais airport in northern France.
“It was a very tense situation,” said Christian Delcourt, the spokesman for the Liege Airport. “Some of these people were very aggressive, very rude.”
Passengers from three other diverted Ryanair planes had accepted an offer of bus transportation to Beauvais, 350 kilometers (225 miles) away. But those on the fourth plane refused to leave and haggled for hours with Ryanair officials who had asked them to wait inside the airport.
“The passengers were unreasonable and refused to follow the advice which would have allowed them to complete their journey,” Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said in a statement.
He said Ryanair crew left “the aircraft when passengers became disruptive,” adding it is “standard safety procedure” for airlines to divert to another airport when weather closes the destination airport.
Delcourt said the passengers finally left the plane at the request of police.
“Some were aggressive to airport staff. They spat at them,” he told The Associated Press.