Intoxicated Ryanair passengers arrested after downing 'bottles' of alcohol on flight to music festival
A group of Ryanair passengers flying from Dublin to a music festival in Malta started their party a bit too early, leading to their arrest as soon as the plane landed.
According to a journalist aboard the flight, Kieran Dineen, many of those in question were "inebriated" before the flight even took off. "It wasn't until I was on the plane that I realized that of the 180 passengers, I guess around 150 were all going to this dance festival," he told RTE's News at One.
The intoxicated passengers delayed the flight from taking off for half an hour and, as someone blasted music through their phone speaker, the scene allegedly deteriorated.
"We were late taking off because people kept jumping out of their seats, some would even shout back at the air stewards or give them a hand signal to let them know they didn’t care what they had to say," Dineen said. "Huge groups congregated at both bathrooms mainly because the drinks carts were there and they bought many, many drinks and there was huge bottles from duty-free opened."
One generous man on his way to the Lost and Found music festival even walked the aisle with a bottle of vodka and gave people sips.
"It was terrifying, I have never been more scared in my life. It was like a rave, they had a boom box going full pelt," a female passenger told The Irish Sun. "There was mayhem up there. One passenger asked for the flight to be diverted. He was as terrified as the rest of the tiny minority who weren't drunk out of their minds."
"One lad was being held by the neck against a window. One lad was pinned to the ground for half an hour. Fights broke out at the toilets," the passenger added. "Cops arrived when we landed and around half a dozen of the worst offenders were taken away after being pointed out by airline staff."
"The staff were very slow in dealing with the problem, they seemed to think there was little they could do except tell people to turn down their music," Dineen said, adding that the flight did stop selling alcohol halfway through the flight, but that by then, the damage was done.
Ryanair supplied the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle: "The crew of this flight from Dublin to Malta (April 30) requested police assistance upon arrival after several passengers became disruptive in-flight. The aircraft landed normally and police removed and detained these individuals. We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behavior at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. This is now a matter for local police."
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