Ryanair ‘flight from hell’ sees ‘mass brawl between two families break out’

A mass brawl broke out on a Ryanair “flight from hell” which was forced to divert just 30 minutes after departing, it has been reported.

Shocking footage published in the Sun shows passengers screaming across the plane at each other as frantic airline staff did their best to calm tensions about the Agadir to Stansted flight. A man in his late 20s reportedly asked a woman if he could take her seat so he could be with his wife and young kids.

The female passenger he was asking, who was sitting with her daughter, reportedly refused the request and he is then said to have started threatening her. The pilot took off completely unaware of the reported tensions flaring in the cabin. It wasn’t until the seatbelt signs were switched off that the passenger’s husband, a man in his 30s, reportedly jumped in to defend his wife.

A Brit who watched the drama unfold, said: “They were trying to punch each other. One of the families was part of a larger group so other passengers started to join in. Then a lady in the row behind started to have a panic attack because of everything going on. She was screaming and there were kids crying. It was like a snowball effect.”

The 36-year-old, a finance worker from Hertfordshire, told The Sun: “We were only in the air for 36 minutes before we had to do an unexpected landing. It was so stressful. It was like the flight from hell. And it all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats.”

The plane landed in Marrakech where Moroccan police boarded the aircraft and seized the nine brawlers and marched them off the plane. During the row, another passenger fell ill and cabin crew had to administer oxygen at 30,000ft.

On landing at Agadir, he was treated by medics and deemed unfit to fly. He refused to disembark and started hurling abuse at cabin crew. In the clip published in the Sun, he is heard saying: “They think I’m a terrorist. That’s why they’re bringing the whole army here to take me down. Give me my f****** bag. I will whack your jaw bruv”.

Fellow passengers pleaded with him to get off the plane before he was forcibly removed. Ryanair staff battled for more than two hours to clear the disruptive holidaymakers. The 200 passengers who remained were forced to board coaches and stay at a local hotel for the night. They were booked on to another flight for the following morning, which was also cancelled and they didn’t get back to the UK until Thursday evening.

A spokesperson for Ryanair told the SUn: “This flight from Agadir to London Stansted diverted to Marrakesh after a small group of passengers became disruptive, and during which time another passenger became ill onboard.”

They added: “The small group of disruptive passengers were then removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie.

“The passenger who became ill was provided with oxygen onboard before being treated by airport medics, who determined that they were not fit-to-fly.

“This passenger refused to disembark and became abusive towards crew, and was removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie.

“As it took almost two hours in total to treat and offload these disruptive passengers, during which time the rest of the passengers remained onboard, the crew reached their permitted flying hours, and caused the flight to be delayed overnight.” The airline also said they provided overnight accommodation and transport to and from the airport for passengers and the flight departed the next day.

The Mirror has reached out to Ryanair for comment.