Summary
- Jet2 flight LS727 was forced to divert to Porto Santo island due to disruptive passengers onboard, with a 26-year-old passenger being arrested.
- This is not the first time Jet2 has experienced incidents with unruly passengers, with previous diversions resulting in lifetime bans and fines for the passengers involved.
On July 17th, Jet2 flight LS727, from Edinburgh to Tenerife, was forced to divert to Porto Santo, Portugal, due to disruptive passengers onboard. Reports suggest that a 26-year-old passenger was removed from the aircraft along with a woman.
The incident
Flight LS727 is a scheduled service operating from Edinburgh Airport (EDI) to Tenerife South Airport (TFS) with a departure at 16:45 and an arrival time of 21:35. However, reports from Daily Record suggest that the flight had to divert to the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, located some 300 miles away from the intended destination due to an unruly passenger onboard on Monday, 17th July. According to data from FlightRadar24.com, the aircraft landed at Porto Santo Airport (PXO) at 20:13.
According to the report, the Madeira Regional Command of the Public Security Police stated that the passenger was arrested for disobeying a legitimate order from the commander of the aircraft. Footage taken at the airport shows two passengers being escorted off the aircraft by the police.
It was also reported that the officers were forced to use "electric weapons of low lethal potential in the process" of removing the passengers from the aircraft for the safety and protection of other passengers and crew members onboard.
The impact
As with any diversion, there is always an impact on the airline with regard to their flight operations and on passengers regarding their itinerary. In this incident, the aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-800, and it was scheduled to arrive at 21:35 in TNS. However, due to the diversion and the delays experienced on the ground, the aircraft only made it to the destination at 23:50.
Considering that airlines prefer to run their schedule with clockwork precision to maximize the utilization of their aircraft, this would have definitely impacted the carrier's operations. However, this would have also affected the passengers' itineraries as well.
Simple Flying has reached out to Jet2 to know more about the impacts which were caused by this delay and how the airline accommodated the other passengers that were delayed. Any response received will be updated in this article.
Not the first time
This incident, however, is not the first of its kind the airline has experienced in recent months. In May, a Jet2 flight from Glasgow to Dalaman had to divert to Sofia, Bulgaria, due to an unruly passenger onboard.
This diversion resulted in passengers arriving at their destination about 90 minutes behind schedule, and the passenger involved in this incident received a lifetime ban from the airline. The airline further confirmed that the passenger would be held responsible for all costs incurred by the airline due to the diversion.
Similarly, in March of 2022, a Jet2 passenger flying from Manchester to Antalya, Turkey, became unruly and aggressive towards others onboard, ultimately resulting in the flight diverting to Vienna and the passenger being offloaded by the Austrian police.
In this instance as well, the passenger ended up with a lifetime ban from flying with the airline, along with a fine of $6,500 to cover the costs incurred during the diversion to Vienna.
Have you ever had an unruly passenger onboard your flight? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Daily Record