Brawl Between Families Derails Ryanair Flight

Pilots make emergency landing about a half-hour after taking off
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 8, 2024 3:45 PM CDT
Brawl Between Families Derails Ryanair Flight
A Ryanair jet approaches for landing in Lisbon at sunrise, Sunday, June 23, 2024.   (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A fight between two passengers on a plane isn't all that unusual, but this one involves a fight between two families with multiple participants, reports the Sun. The chaos began soon after a Ryanair flight took off from Agadir, Morocco, en route to London. Based on passenger accounts, it seems that a man in his 20s asked a woman seated with her daughter if she would switch seats so he could be next to his family. She refused, tempers flared, and the next thing you know, flight attendants had what was described as a "mass brawl" on their hands between the respective families, per Quartz.

"Then a lady in the row behind started to have a panic attack because of everything going on," a passenger tells the Sun. "She was screaming and there were kids crying. It was like a snowball effect." The pilots made an emergency landing in Marrakesh only 36 minutes after taking off, and police took nine people off the plane. The problem is, sorting through the mess cost precious time. "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," says a Ryanair spokesperson. The 200 passengers took off again the next morning. (More Ryanair stories.)

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