Two passengers were removed from a Ryanair flight after an apparent brawl was sparked by a child crying on board.
Ryanair flight FR1882 took off from London Stansted for a two-and-a-half-hour flight to Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, 12 August, when the conflict between two passengers reportedly erupted.
According to Portuguese publication SIC, the incident started when a child began crying during the flight. Tensions rose after the plane landed in Lisbon and was heading towards the apron.
Footage obtained by the outlet shows passengers standing up inside the Ryanair cabin, amid shouting and raised voices.
One mother can be heard comforting her crying child, saying, “It's okay, we are going now.”
Ryanair flight attendants can be seen standing in the aisle talking to the passengers.
The publication said that because of the “altercation”, passengers had to wait inside the plane for about an hour. Meanwhile, police officers were called to respond to the incident.
Ryanair confirmed the incident to The Independent, stating: “The crew of this flight from London Stansted to Lisbon (12 Aug) called for police assistance after two passengers became disruptive onboard.
“The aircraft was met by local police and these passengers were removed.
“Ryanair has a strict zero-tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take action to combat unruly passenger behaviour on aircraft for the benefit of the vast majority of passengers who do not disrupt flights.
“This is a matter for local police.”
The low-cost airline is known to have a strict policy towards unruly passengers, having fined and banned those have disrupted journeys.
In legal proceedings filed earlier this year in the Polish courts, Ryanair sought over €3,000 (£2,500) in damages against a passenger who disrupted a flight from Berlin to Marrakesh that was forced to divert to Seville.
In addition, Ryanair handed the passenger a five-year ban from travelling with the airline.
Ryanair has also recently introduced a penalty for passengers who are offloaded due to their behaviour.
A Ryanair spokesperson said back in June: “It is unacceptable that passengers are made suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behaviour.
“To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers, we have introduced a £500 fine, which will be issued to any passengers offloaded from aircraft as a result of their misconduct.”
The airline said the penalty will be taken directly from the card used to make the booking or deducted from any Ryanair vouchers the passenger may have.
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