We’ve heard of inflight situations that resulted in entire bucks parties being escorted off planes, disputes over seat reclining and even various celebrity disruptions.
However, this one might be among the worst incidents to ever occur in the air.
A Ryanair flight was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Pisa, Italy last week when a brawl broke out on board that saw an elderly woman get hit in the head and a flight attendant slapped.
According to The Sun, the plane was en-route from Brussels to Malta when a fight broke out, and is believed to have lasted up to eight hours.
Video captured by a passenger shows men in white shirts standing over a seat when a man in a grey hoodie stands and repeatedly slaps the man in front of him.
A flight attendant’s pleas for passengers to sit down over the PA system are drowned out by the sounds of people shouting and the dramatic scene unfolding.
A few minutes into the fight, the Captain tells passengers through the PA that their behaviour is “not acceptable at all” before advising them of the unscheduled landing.
Tommy Engerer, who captured the incident, described the inflight situation as “terrifying” and said it “went on for so long” that others were concerned someone might try to open the aircraft doors and “bring the plane down”.
Engerer, believes the fight broke out when an elderly woman who moved seats.
“They were attacking everyone around them and one of the men even slapped a stewardess in the face.”
Tommy Engerer
“It was chaos for about 10 minutes until there was an announcement that the plane was being diverted and passengers managed to restrain them with belts.”
A Ryanair spokesperson told the publication that the aircraft landed “normally” and four passengers were detained by police upon arrival.
