A 26-year-old disruptive passenger on a Jet2 flight to Tenerife forced pilots to divert the plane and land in Madeira because of his behaviour, causing a 27-hour delay for the other holidaymakers on board.
The flight which departed from Edinburgh was forced to land on the island of Porto Santo in Madeira, Portugal, more than 300 miles away from its destination, Tenerife.
The 26-year-old man was escorted across the runway by four airport security staff members wearing yellow hi-vis jackets after he was removed from the plane, and in the background, a second female passenger can be seen being walked off the plane by two other security officers.
As the man is taken across the runway with his hands behind his back, he is filmed trying to wrestle himself out of the firm grip of the security personnel but to no avail.
According to a statement from the Portuguese police, the 'disorderly' passenger's behaviour “raised immediate concerns among the crew”, and officers had been forced to use “an electric weapon of low lethal potential to guarantee the safety of the other passengers and crew after the man refused to cooperate”.
The Madeira Regional Command of the Public Security Police (PSP) confirmed that a foreign national had been arrested “for the crime of disobeying the legitimate order of the Commander of an aircraft”.
“The man ended up being detained by the police, who were there at the request of the pilot, for the crime of disobedience, following the normal procedural steps, and then the flight continued to its destination after a lengthy delay”, they added.
A Jet2 spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that flight LS727 from Edinburgh to Tenerife diverted to Porto Santo on Monday 17th July so that police could offload a disruptive passenger”.
“As a result of this diversion, the Tenerife to Edinburgh flight was subsequently delayed, however, our teams did everything to look after customers including providing hotel accommodation and refreshments.”
This is the latest in a string of incidents on Jet2 aircraft and comes after an 'extremely drunk' passenger in Bulgaria allegedly tried to open a plane door earlier this month, while another holidaymaker was removed from a flight after allegedly 'urinating on his brother'.
