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Jet2 flight diverted to Greece after passenger started ‘hammering’ cockpit door

The passenger was removed from the flight in Corfu

Qin Xie
Friday 28 August 2020 06:05 EDT
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A Jet2 flight was forced to divert to Greece on Wednesday
A Jet2 flight was forced to divert to Greece on Wednesday (Getty)

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A Jet2 flight to Manchester was forced to divert to Greece on 26 August after a "drunk" passenger became disruptive on the flight.

Flight LS922 from Dalaman was just an hour into its 4 hour 45 minute journey when crew were forced to initiate a diversion.

The unnamed man, believed to be British, was said to have been shouting and "hammering" on the cockpit door, with cabin crew and passengers being forced to restrain him according to Manchester Evening News.

While Greek airports are currently closed to flights from Turkey due to the ongoing pandemic, the flight was given special permission to land at Corfu's Ioannis Kapodistrias Airport.

Upon arrival, only the disruptive passenger was permitted to disembark.

He was arrested by Greek police and has been forced to isolate pending results of a Covid-19 test. Local media reports that he is expected to be sent back to the UK for prosecution. The flight resumed without him after a 90-minute delay.

A spokesperson for the airline told The Independent: “Flight LS922 from Dalaman to Manchester was diverted to Corfu on Wednesday, to offload a disruptive passenger.

"We would like to thank our highly-trained crew for their handling of the situation, and we would also like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience or upset that this caused. As a family friendly airline, we take a zero tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour.”

A similar incident happened on a Jet2 flight last year.

Chloe Haines, 25, tried to open the aircraft door and storm the cockpit during a flight from London Stansted to Dalaman in Turkey on 22 June.

The Costa Coffee employee also sent one flight attendant “flying across the plane” according to an eyewitness, and screamed, “I’m going to kill everyone.”

The pilots were forced to divert the flight, accompanied by two RAF Typhoon fighter jets.

Jet2 were said to be pursuing damages of £85,000.

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