Video footage showed a chaotic scene on a Ryanair flight Wednesday as passengers got into a vicious brawl that forced the plane to turn around and make an emergency landing.
The donnybrook kicked off during an evening flight from Agadir to London Stansted, according The Sun. A man reportedly approached a female passenger while boarding, asking her if he could switch seats so that he could sit with his family.
The woman denied the request because she was already sitting with her daughter, and the man responded by allegedly threatening her, The Sun reported.
After the flight launched and the seatbelt lights turned off, the woman’s husband rose to defend his wife, and the two men began trading blows, according to the outlet.
“They were trying to punch each other. One of the families was part of a larger group so other passengers started to join in,” a witness told The Sun. (RELATED: Triple Threat Tag Team Match Breaks Out On Golf Course, And My Oh My, What An Idiotic Show)
Another female passenger began suffering a panic attack because of the in-flight fisticuffs, which also prompted children to start crying, the witness added . “It was like a snowball effect.”
The situation escalated after another passenger became sick, requiring attendants to administer oxygen, according to The Sun. He allegedly became hostile, however, to the crew.
“They think I’m a terrorist. That’s why they’re bringing the whole army here to take me down,” he appeared to say on video. “Give me my fucking bag. I will whack your jaw bruv”.
The footage shows flight attendants unsuccessfully trying to calm the situation down. “We were only in the air for 36 minutes before we had to do an unexpected landing,” the passenger told The Sun. “It was so stressful.
Upon landing, law enforcement officials were waiting to remove and detain the unruly passengers from the plane, a process that took two hours. The individual who required oxygen also put up a fight when the crew tried to get him to disembark. “They think I’m a terrorist. That’s why they’re bringing the whole army here to take me down,” he could be heard saying on the footage.
Two passengers got into a fist fight on a Southwest Airlines flight in February 2024, but the incident did not deter the flight.
In another occurrence in March, a passenger was manhandled off an airplane before takeoff after apparently shouting antisemitic slurs.
