According to reports in The Sun, a trio of men in their twenties had allegedly been permitted to carry on drinking alcohol during the seven-hour flight despite unruly behaviour.
The newspaper said that cabin crew moved the disruptive trio to the back of the aircraft where they continued to drink and refused to sit down just before landing. After landing, one of the group was involved in a fight with a man dressed in a Liverpool shirt and began screaming ‘Bin Laden’ at passengers.
The Sun quotes another passenger as saying: “I’ve never seen behaviour like it, and I’m a psychiatric nurse.” The passenger claims that crew continued to give the disruptive group drinks and that she was told to delete a recording of the incident.
Four men were detained, but no more details are known. When contacted by TTG, Qatar Airways confirmed the incident had taken place but would only say that: “We do not comment on passengers onboard.”
In another incident, a Virgin Atlantic flight to the Caribbean had to be diverted to The Azores after a passenger threatened to open the doors mid-flight.
Saturday’s flight from Gatwick to St Lucia made the emergency landing on the island of Terceira after passengers and crew were forced to restrain a man who was allegedly threatening cabin crew and spitting at them.
On landing on the Portuguese island, passengers then faced a four-hour wait until they could take off again. Virgin said it had “no choice but to divert and remove the disruptive customer” and issued a letter of apology to passengers.
