An ‘erratic’ passenger forced an easyJet flight bound for Manchester Airport to make an emergency landing after causing chaos on board. A witness told the Manchester Evening News about the turmoil caused by a lone ‘erratic’ woman on the flight from Dalaman, Turkey, on Saturday, May 24.
The female passenger allegedly shouted about a bomb on the plane, attempted to open the emergency exit, and grabbed for life jackets. According to reports, she was ‘wrestled away’ before the aircraft made an emergency landing at Frankfurt Airport.
EasyJet has confirmed that the actions of a ‘disruptive’ passenger prompted the diversion of flight EZY2148 to Frankfurt. A passenger seated near the emergency exit, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Once the plane had took off, she began to run up and down the plane screaming about how it was going down and there was a bomb. She also tried to get life jackets and oxygen masks out.”
The same passenger reported that the woman disturbed a couple by claiming the aircraft was ‘going down’, then reached for the emergency exit. They continued: “She then quickly jumped up and grabbed the emergency exit door handle cover and ripped it off.
“She then went for the handle but was stopped by other passengers. It took three males to wrestle the woman away from the emergency exit. Afterwards, she was escorted to the rear of the plane by cabin crew and we were informed that the plane would be making an emergency landing.”
The flight was scheduled to depart from Dalaman at 11pm, but it took off at midnight local time. Upon landing at Frankfurt Airport at around 2.30am, emergency services were observed boarding the plane.
It is understood that an investigation has been initiated involving German authorities. Passengers were reportedly kept on the aircraft for several hours before being permitted to exit for the airport around 5am.
Due to an ‘airport curfew’, the flight could not leave Frankfurt until later in the day, with the plane touching down in Manchester at 1.40pm, according to the easyJet website.
An easyJet spokesperson stated: “Flight EZY2148 from Dalaman to Manchester on May 24 diverted to Frankfurt due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard.Regrettably, because of the airport curfew, the flight had to be delayed overnight and has since continued to Manchester today.
“Owing to limited airport ground handling availability overnight, we are aware that customers were required to remain onboard for longer than usual before they could disembark and we did everything we could to mitigate the impact of the delay.
“As there was unfortunately limited hotel availability in the area, some customers stayed in the terminal where we provided refreshment vouchers to help make them as comfortable as possible.
“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 abusive or threatening behaviour onboard. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”
