LONDON: A Ryanair flight from Agadir to London was forced to make an emergency landing in Marrakech last week after a mass brawl erupted between passengers.
“It was like the flight from hell. And it all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats,” an unnamed passenger reportedly told the media.
Witnesses said that the brawl started shortly after takeoff from the Moroccan city when a man in his twenties asked a woman to swap seats so he could sit next to his family.
The woman refused to change seats since she was already sitting with her daughter, prompting the man to begin threatening her.
The altercation led to the intervention of the woman’s husband, who started defending his wife, leading to the brawl. Other family members quickly joined in.
Video footage shared online shows passengers screaming, pushing and throwing punches in the aisle as cabin crew attempted to intervene.
“They were trying to punch each other. One of the families was part of a larger group so other passengers started to join in,” the fellow passage added.
In the middle of the drama, another person onboard the plane fell ill and had to be given oxygen mid-flight.
As the situation escalated, the pilots decided to divert the flight and make an emergency landing in Marrakech, where the police intervened to offload the “disruptive” passengers.
The ill passenger was also treated but was determined to continue her flight. She refused to disembark, requiring authorities to remove her, causing further delays.
By the time the situation was resolved, the cabin crew had reached their permitted flying hours, forcing the flight to be postponed to the following day.
A Ryanair spokesperson confirmed the incident, saying that the flight had to be postponed after a “small group of passengers became disruptive.”
They added that a series of events led to the rescheduling of the flight’s departure and apologized to customers for the diversion.
