Last week, a mass brawl broke out on a Ryanair flight from Morocco to London, forcing the plane to divert after just 36 minutes.
Video footage from inside the cabin shows passengers shouting at each other. The argument reportedly started when a family asked to switch seats.
Cabin crew are visibly panicked and try to calm passengers as the plane flies at 30,000 feet.
The plane was en route from Agadir to London Stansted on Wednesday evening when an argument broke out between two families as people were boarding, a witness said.
According to The Sun, the passenger said a man, believed to be in his late 20s, asked another passenger to move aside so he could sit with his wife and children.
Last week, a mass brawl broke out on a Ryanair flight from Morocco to London, forcing the plane to divert after just 36 minutes. Footage has emerged of the chaos.
However, the other passenger, a woman sitting with her daughter, refused to stand up for the man, who became angry with her.
The witness stated that the angry man began threatening the women.
Despite this, the plane took off without any problems, but as soon as the seat belt warning lights went out, the woman’s husband, who was reportedly in his thirties, stepped in for his wife.
The two men punched each other, the witness said, while Ryanair staff tried to intervene and break up the fight.
“They were trying to hit each other,” a British passenger told The Sun anonymously, claiming that this was the cause of the mass brawl.
‘One of the families was part of a larger group, so other passengers joined in.
‘Then a lady in the row behind had a panic attack because of everything that was happening. She was screaming and there were children crying.
“It was like a snowball effect,” said the 36-year-old passenger, who described the trip as an “escape from hell.”
“It all started with that one passenger who wanted to change seats,” they add.
The plane was diverted and landed in Marrakech about 30 minutes after takeoff.
Flight tracking website FlightAware showed the journey of flight RUK3034 as it took off from Agadir, a city on Morocco’s southern Atlantic coast.
Video footage from inside the cabin shows passengers shouting at each other in a row that reportedly started when a family asked to switch seats. Nine people were eventually thrown off the plane after it was forced to divert to Marrakech
Flight tracking website FlightAware showed the journey of flight RUK3034 as it departed from Agadir, a city on Morocco’s southern Atlantic coast
The radar map shows the plane flying north, making an abrupt turn to the east and landing in Marrakesh, 127 miles northeast of where it took off.
The radar map shows the plane flying north, then making an abrupt turn to the east and landing in Marrakesh, 204 kilometers (127 miles) northeast of where it took off.
Moroccan police came across the plane and led away the nine people involved in the demolition of the plane.
To add to the chaos, another passenger became ill during the fight and had to be given oxygen mid-flight. He was treated by medics who determined he was unfit to fly.
The sick man then became abusive to the cabin crew and refused to disembark. This was also captured on a mobile phone.
He is heard saying that the crew “thinks I’m a terrorist,” adding, “That’s why they’re bringing the whole army here to take me out.”
He is also heard threateningly saying: ‘Give me my f****** bag. I’ll punch your jaw, mate’ as other passengers beg him to get off the plane.
He too was taken away by the police.
In the two hours it took for cabin crew and police to remove the disruptive passengers from the plane, staff reached their maximum daily working hours.
This meant that all passengers had to get off the plane, be crammed into a bus and taken to a hotel, where they spent the night.
They were all booked on another flight the next day, but that was also cancelled, meaning they didn’t arrive back in Stanstead until Thursday evening.
Ryanair confirmed the incident in a statement to MailOnline and apologised for the ‘diversion and subsequent delay caused by a small group of disruptive passengers’, saying it was beyond the airline’s control.
“This flight from Agadir to London Stansted (3 July) was diverted to Marrakech after a small group of passengers caused disruption, resulting in another passenger on board becoming ill,” the statement said.
‘The crew called ahead for both medical and police assistance, which met the aircraft on arrival in Marrakech. The small group of disruptive passengers were then removed from the aircraft by the airport gendarmerie.
‘The passenger who fell ill was given oxygen on board and was subsequently treated by airport doctors, who determined that he was not fit to fly.
In a statement to MailOnline, Ryanair confirmed the series of events and apologised for the “diversion and subsequent delay caused by a small group of disruptive passengers”, saying this was beyond the airline’s control.
‘This passenger refused to disembark and became abusive to the crew. He was also removed from the plane by the airport gendarmerie.
‘Because it took almost 2 hours in total to process and disembark the troublesome passengers, the crew exceeded their permitted flight hours and the flight was delayed overnight.
Affected passengers were given an overnight stay and transportation to/from the airport. This flight departed the following day (4 July) to London.
“We sincerely apologise to passengers for this diversion and subsequent delay, which was caused by a small group of passengers who caused disruption and were beyond Ryanair’s control,” the statement said.