By Andrew Atkinson
Spanish police escorted a man off a flight at Alicante-Elche Airport after cabin crew alerted authorities he had removed his trousers and became disruptive.
The incident occurred with passengers on a Ryanair flight waiting to take off being delayed 40 minutes.
A young Irishman was removed from the Dublin-bound flight with passengers alleging his behaviour became hysterical – after airline crew tried to take away bottles of booze he was clutching.
“People were afraid of the man’s worrying behaviour, including removing his trousers, because he said he was too hot,” said a passenger.
Another passenger, whose wife was sitting near the man, said she had recounted to him how he took his trousers off shortly after sitting down and proceeded to become more disorderly.
“Nobody noticed anything when he got on, he didn’t seem too bad, but when he sat down he got up and took off his trousers.
“My wife said that he said to the woman beside him that he gets very hot on the plane, and then she said to me, ‘I kind of copped then he was under the weather.
“He had bottles on his lap, maybe four or five litres of spirits, and the stewardess asked to take them off him, because she wanted to stow them up safely.
“But he wouldn’t let them go, he said they were presents and they weren’t taking them. He got a bit hysterical then.
“Then they called the other cabin steward and he came down and they were just trying to pacify him. He got a bit abusive and told them he couldn’t take his stuff and he had rights,” he said.
The doors to the aircraft had already been closed, with cross-check completed and the plane ready to pull away from the stand.
The man had put on his trousers again at this point and someone made a decision to have him removed from the plane, due to refusing to co-operate.
The cabin crew handled the situation extremely well and there was no violence.
Six policemen entered the plane and the man was escorted. Delays were extended, due to removal of a suitcase. It emerged he had no luggage in the hold.
After the man was removed from the aircraft, the flight departed Alicante-Elche and landed in Dublin Airport at 5.03pm local time, 23 minutes later than scheduled.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Alicante to Dublin (07 February) was delayed ahead of take-off after a passenger became disruptive on board.
“Crew alerted local police who removed the passenger from the aircraft, and the flight departed following a short delay of approx. 40 mins. Ryanair apologises to affected passengers for this delay.”
