A flight from Mexico to London was forced to make an emergency landing in the United States after two passengers began fighting on board, officials have said.
The TUI Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner was en route from Cancun to Gatwick on Tuesday with 267 passengers on board when the altercation broke out. The scuffle prompted the pilot to divert the plane, landing it in Bangor, Maine, around 9.30pm EST.
Passengers were left stranded overnight in the small coastal US city as flight crew had reached their duty limits and a relief crew had to be flown in. The flight eventually departed again at 3pm EST on Wednesday and landed safely at Gatwick later that day.
Audio recordings captured communications between the cockpit and air traffic control as the incident unfolded.
“Cockpit is secure and there’s two passengers fighting and the crew has pretty much gotten them under control,” the pilot reported.
One passenger told the New York Post that the pilot had warned them about an hour into the flight that two individuals had been caught “smoking in the toilet”, adding that the plane would have to divert if they did not stop. The pair reportedly refused.
“They were obviously drunk, and he basically assaulted his partner,” the passenger said.
After the situation escalated, the pilot confirmed the diversion to Bangor roughly three hours later, when the aircraft was near the Canadian border. Upon landing, US airport authorities boarded the plane and removed the two disruptive passengers.
“Upon arrival, CBP officers removed both individuals from the aircraft,” a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson said.
Despite the disturbance and forced landing, neither passenger faced criminal charges. According to the BBC, both were “returned to their home countries on separate outbound flights.”
“This incident involved a foreign-to-foreign flight that was diverted due to an in-flight altercation between two passengers,” the CBP spokesperson added. “Although no criminal charges were filed, CBP processed the two subjects for expedited removal.”
Passengers described the unexpected layover as uncomfortable, citing issues with refuelling and delays in flight rebooking. Many were forced to spend the night in Bangor after the diversion disrupted the original flight plan.
