Yahoo News Passenger jet forced to make emergency landing after row breaks out between groups of British men
Seven Britons were reportedly escorted off a budget flight after it was forced to make an emergency landing when a row broke out.
Onlookers claim the easyJet flight from Manchester to Tenerife was forced to divert to Portugal after an argument between two groups of men that saw one allegedly spit at a woman.
The row is said to have broken out around two hours after the plane took off at 5.35pm on Thursday 3 October.
Witnesses said a group of four men at the back of the plane started punching each other but were broken up by a member of the cabin crew, who moved one of the men to the front of the plane.
But according to reports, the man returned to the group, where the argument broke out again.
As passengers tried to break up the fight, one of the men is said to have spat in a woman’s eye.
Video footage of the row shows passengers reacting to the moment, with one woman shouting: "There's children on the aeroplane!"
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Another group of men on the plane for a stag party then got involved and the situation escalated, eyewitnesses said.
The plane was diverted to Faro, Portugal, where security staff bundled seven men – the four-man group and three members of the stag party – off the plane, and then went on to complete its journey.
Nathan Belford, from Stoke-on-Trent, said: "Things first kicked off when the group at the back got into a fight. Punches were thrown and the stewardess broke them up.
"But then they kicked off again, and passengers actually intervened to calm them down. One woman got in the way, but a guy spat in her eye. It was disgusting.
"After that, cabin decided to divert to Portugal. Then things escalated after the bigger stag party howled with rage about it.
"They picked a fight with cabin crew and with the group of four, complaining that they should be going to Tenerife for their weekend.
"One of the guys got into trouble when he started pinching drinks from the front of the plane. It was bedlam.”
An easyJet spokesman said: “We can confirm that flight EZY1903 from Manchester to Tenerife on 3 October diverted to Faro as a result of some passengers on board behaving disruptively and was met by police on arrival.
“The passengers were removed by police and the aircraft continued on to Tenerife.
"easyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
“Whilst such incidents are rare, we take them very seriously, and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour on board.
“The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is our highest priority.”
