Drunk Airline Passenger Turned Aggressive, Restrained By Crew, Co-Passengers, Plane Diverted

A drunk British man caused a Transavia flight, bound for Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands, to make an emergency landing in Portugal on New Year’s Day.

The plane took off from Eindhoven in the Netherlands and was on its way to its destination when the incident happened. The unnamed passenger behaved in an unruly manner from the moment he stepped onto the plane, verbally abusing co-passengers and cabin crew, a Transavia spokeswoman said. His behavior only got worse when the flight was in midair.

“He was shouting ‘b---h’ and was behaving in a boisterous way,” an anonymous passenger who witnessed the incident said. A video of the incident was recorded by one of the passengers on board.

In fact, the passenger’s behavior got so bad that the airline crew found it increasingly difficult to maintain control over his antics. Finally, they were forced to enlist the help of other passengers to keep the man in check, Mail Online reported.

At some point during the flight, the pilot called for any “firefighters, cops or soldiers on board or other passengers willing to assist my colleagues in restraining this passenger.”

After the announcement, a number of passengers stepped forward to help the flight attendants. “He was pushed forward and overpowered by crew members and passengers, secured with cable ties and laid on the ground,” the witness said.

In the meantime, since the passenger posed a risk to the safety of others, the pilot made the decision to divert the plane to Faro Airport in southern Portugal. Once the plane landed, the “very bothersome” passenger was removed from the aircraft.

“Afterwards, the aircraft continued its journey to Tenerife,” the airline spokesperson said. “First and foremost: violence on board is never okay.”

When the Portuguese officers removed the man from the plane, the rest of the passengers reportedly broke out to huge cheers and applause. It is not clear if the passenger was charged.

In another instance that took place on New Year’s Day, Russian professional ice hockey player Oleg Saprykin, 37, was arrested after he struck a flight attendant on an Aurora Airlines flight, similarly causing the plane to get diverted.

The player was already drunk when he boarded the plane but regardless, demanded that the flight attendant top-up his glass of whiskey – something the cabin crew member refused to do. That is when Saprykin became violent. When the flight attendant tried to calm down the man, he hit her on the head.

"The man hit the stewardess with such force that she fell to the floor and received bruises. Then the commander decided to interrupt the flight and land at the nearest airport urgently,” an airport source said.

A video of the player engaging in an abusive rant was uploaded on social media – a behavior which continued even when he was arrested and put behind bars. Another footage showed him inside a prison cell, dressed in just underwear and banging on the door. He was also seen throwing broken furniture through the bars.

However, since neither the attendant nor the airline officially filed any complaint against him, Saprykin walked away scot-free after paying a fine.