The National Police were called onto a Ryanair plane on Thursday evening as soon as it landed at Tenerife South Airport to arrest five “drunk and abusive” passengers on the flight from Liverpool.
According to eyewitness reports, the five consisted of three males and two females who weren’t travelling together, but who were sat in front and behind of each other on the plane, and collectively were rude to other passengers, disruptive during the flight, and abusive to cabin crew.
The male passengers were among the last to board flight FR4346 as one of the group was in a wheelchair and his friends had to assist him onto the plane, but the problems started shortly after take-off at 4:05pm.
As soon as the plane was off the ground, they opened a bottle of duty-free alcohol and were rowdily drinking from the bottle, which led to cabin crew approaching them, asking them to stop, and asking them to quieten down, but they just ignored them and carried on.
At this point they started to include two female passengers who were sat on the row behind them with an empty seat, sharing the drink and generally being rude to other passengers who were asking them to mind their language, as they had children, or sit down as they kept swaying and bumping in to them.
Because of their actions the pilot addressed the situation over the planes tannoy, telling them that if they didn’t sit down, put the drink away, and behave, that he would land in Lisbon (Portugal) where they would be evicted from the plane and have to make their own way to Tenerife or home.
This warning caused the five of them to sit down, but not in their own seats as one of the girls sat with two of the males and the other two sat together. Not long after passengers realised that although they were being quiet, they were engaging in inappropriate sexual behaviour and told them to stop as it was front of children, but both they, and flight crew, were met with a stream of abuse from the intoxicated group.
By this time the plane started its final decent into Tenerife South Airport, and the captain had already requested the assistance of the police upon landing. As soon as the plane came to a standstill, passengers were told to stay in their seats and the National Police boarded the plane.
The Police arrested all five of the abusive passengers and took their passports so that the pilot could log their details, who told them that under no circumstances would they be travelling back to the UK with Ryanair.
Much to the delight and relief of the other passengers, they were then escorted off the plane by the police who took them for questioning. Although we don’t know the final outcome, usually in this situation, they are not allowed to enter the island and have to return back to the UK, at their own cost, without having their holiday.
In this situation, we all want those tourists to go home!
