Flight Passenger Removed From Plane For Joking About Blowing Up Aircraft

A man was removed from a Geneva-bound EasyJet flight from London Luton Airport after passengers overheard him threatening to blow up the plane.

The drama began when the culprit asked the ground crew to "f--- off" for asking him not to walk under the plane's wing as he tried to cut the queue. When the man was confronted, he reportedly said, “What do you think I’m going to, blow up the plane?”

Police were called to the scene who dragged the suspect off before quizzing him on the tarmac. His luggage was also thrown out of the flight; however, he was not arrested.

Sniffer dogs were brought onboard to check the cabin as the captain joked, “Don’t worry folks the guy is there outside now. Does anyone not like dogs?" the Sun reported.

A witness said, "The suspect told the ground crew to “f---k off” and was sticking his fingers up at them. He was on the stairs going to take his seat when he said something about blowing the plane up. Everyone knows you don’t mention anything about bombs or blowing up planes at an airport. So they bundled him off."

“The pilot announced there had been a security incident and the flight was delayed. Cops came on the plane and pulled this Asian man off. They then seemed to question him on the tarmac. Police searched the hold then sent dogs onto the plane to go through the cabin. Every passenger had to stand up so their seat could be checked. Everyone on the aircraft was really worried about. No-one knew what was going on. The pilot tried to make light of it with jokes, asking if everyone liked dogs. But when the plane eventually took off the atmosphere was tense to say the least,” another witness said.

The packed flight EZY2051 was delayed by 47 minutes due to the incident.

An EasyJet spokesperson too confirmed the incident saying, "EasyJet can confirm that a passenger on flight EZY2051 from London Luton to Geneva was arrested by the police due to their behaviour whilst boarding the flight. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet's priority. The passenger was offloaded and the aircraft has now departed."

"EasyJet takes all incidents of disruptive behaviour onboard very seriously. We have a duty to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all onboard. We would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience caused by the delay,” the spokesperson added.

“No offences were found to have been committed and no arrests were made,” Bedfordshire Police said.

It was, however, unclear when the incident took place. International Business Times has reached out to the airlines for more details.