A pair of Royal Air Force Typhoon jets were scrambled to escort a budget airline flight heading from London to Turkey back to British soil on June 22, 2019, because of an “extremely disruptive passenger.”
Flight LS1503, which was flying from London’s Stansted airport to Dalaman in Turkey, turned back 20 minutes after taking off at 5:52 p.m. (12:52 p.m. ET) when a female passenger tried to open the aircraft doors in mid-air, Jet2 told Business Insider in a statement.
Jet2 said their Airbus A321 had “returned to base because of this appalling and dangerous behaviour.”
A Ministry of Defense spokeswoman told Business Insider: “We can confirm that RAF quick reaction alert Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby scrambled to escort a commercial flight into Stansted shortly after take-off due to reports of a disruptive passenger.”
One of Jet2’s A321 aircraft.
(TripAdvisor)
Essex Police tweeted on June 24, 2019, to say they had arrested a 25-year-old woman “on suspicion of common assault, criminal damage and endangering an aircraft.”
She has been released on bail until July 30, 2019, they added.
Several passengers onboard June 22, 2019’s flight told The Sun newspaper about the scene inside the plane.
One said: “This lady who was clearly intoxicated gets called to the front of the plane and she starts shouting and screaming and runs to the plane door.”
“The cabin crew grabbed her to stop her and then she starts scratching them and hitting them.”
“She then got pinned to the floor by cabin crew and passengers and a passenger even sat on her.”
Another passenger told The Sun: “The stewards gave her several chances and did the best they could before she became abusive and then made a dash for the cockpit and had to be restrained by staff and passengers.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.
