YET another Jet2 flight to Spain has had to be diverted due to rowdy stag party passengers – the second in two weeks.
This time, the flight had set off from Birmingham with a group of 27 young men on board who became aggressive and displayed 'appalling behaviour', according to the airline.
Reports released today say one of the group had been denied boarding on the Friday flight to Ibiza because of his drunken, unseemly and confrontational attitude, and cabin crew refused to sell alcohol on the flight to any passenger as a precaution.
Midway through the journey to the Balearic party island, the crew opted to land in the nearest airport, Toulouse (south-western France) and order the men to get off.
One of them is said to have been banned from flying with Jet2 for life.
Air stewards said they gave the stag group numerous warnings about their behaviour before making the drastic decision to land and disembark them – an option carriers do not take up lightly due to extra costs and delays involved – but deemed it essential 'in the interests of everyone's comfort and safety'.
An official communication from Jet2 said the men were drinking 'illicitly' from their duty-free supply whilst on board, having already got themselves tanked up in the airport before getting on the plane.
Jet2's director Phil Ward said the ones forced off the plane have 'ruined' the stag party for everyone else who was looking forward to it and 'subjected the crew and customers' to a 'continued pattern of disgraceful and aggressive behaviour'.
Ward said it had left many of the airline's 'highly-trained cabin crew extremely upset'.
The passengers ordered to disembark were arrested as soon as they hit the runway in Toulouse, and other than the one banned for life, others may face similar action.
Just a fortnight earlier, another aggressive and anti-social stag party group forced Jet2 to divert en route between Belfast, Northern Ireland and Ibiza.
The revellers were among the last to board and already drunk, and despite 'stern warnings' from the captain about how only alcohol purchased on board could be consumed in flight, the young men continued drinking after take-off.
One of them became violent and loud when the air hostess refused to sell him alcohol and reprimanded him for drinking his duty-free stash.
He became more and more uncivil, leading the captain to decide to drop him off and arrange for police to be on the ground to arrest him upon arrival.
As a result of the diversion to Toulouse, the three-hour flight ended up being six hours long, and passengers – many of whom had small children and babies – were stuck on the plane for all this extra time in intense heat, which caused a number of toddler tantrums.
At the time, Jet2 described the diversion of flight LS397 – due to arrive in Ibiza at 19.30 mainland Spain time – as 'an unusual decision', but with two connections to Ibiza from the UK having followed an identical pattern in as many weeks, the airline is now seriously reconsidering its policies in this respect, particularly concerning alcohol.
