Jet2 flight delayed by 27-hours after 'disruptive' passenger tasered by police

Stock image of Jet2 plane

The Jet2 flight was forced to divert to Madeira to deal with the passenger

PA
Dan Falvey

By Dan Falvey


Published: 23/07/2023

- 09:29

Updated: 24/01/2024

- 12:21

The plane was forced to divert to Madeira to deal with the passenger

A Jet2 passenger was tasered by police and removed from the plane after a flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife was forced to divert to Madeira.

A 26-year-old male was arrested by Portuguese police upon arrival at the Porto Santo airport and dragged across the runway after causing havoc onboard the plane.


The pilot made the early landing the fight after cabin crew struggled to cope with the behaviour of the man.

Passengers making their way to the Canary Island destination delayed for 27-hours as a result of the chaos.

The plane was delayed by 27 hours with passengers put up in local hotels

PA

They were forced to disembark and stay the night before continuing their journey.

Portuguese police confirmed that a foreign national had been arrested "for the crime of disobeying the legitimate order of the Commander of an aircraft".

They said: "The citizen ended up being detained by the police present there for the crime of disobedience, following the normal procedural steps, and the flight continued to its destination."

Police added that the "disorderly" Briton's behaviour had "raised immediate concerns among the crew".

HOLIDAYS FROM HELL:

Jet2 plane

Police say they used a taser to 'guarantee the safety of the other passengers and crew'

PA

They said and that officers has no choice but to use "an electric weapon of low lethal potential" in order to "guarantee the safety of the other passengers and crew".

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."

The unruly man's behaviour comes as some of the Canary Islands consider whether they still want to appeal to the mass market of British tourists.

Earlier this year Lanzarote said that it wanted to appeal to "higher-quality tourism" offered by Germany rather than those travelling from the UK.

Lanzarote president Maria Dolores Corujo said she wanted the island to "reduce the dependence on the British market".

"It’s essential to work on the diversification of the sector and the growth of markets like the German market, which adapt to our intentions of aiming at higher-quality tourism and holidaymakers who spend more when they’re here and moves us away from mass tourism," she said.

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