A 28-year-old British man has been arrested by the Guardia Civil for trying to open the doors of an airplane during a flight from London Gatwick to Alicante, and for assaulting other passengers and a crew member in the process.
The incident occurred around 9:25pm on Thursday on an EasyJet flight, when the control tower at Alicante-Elche airport received an alert informing them that a passenger was drunk, had started fighting with other passengers on the plane, and then tried to open the plane doors.
According to the report, he was so drunk he didn’t realise the plane was still in the air and tried to open the door so he could “get off quicker”, and then tried to access the cabin. Stewardesses tried to stop him and he assaulted one of them in the process.
Following the alert, the flight path was cleared so the plane had priority landing and the Guardia Civil were waiting on the runway and boarded it as soon as it stopped to detain the culprit who was taken into custody.
According to the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency, the route from London to Alicante sees the second-highest number of on-flight incidents, with 184 complaints recorded last year. Drunk Britons are reportedly the reason for most incidents.
