Teen woman ‘pinned down by easyJet crew after making an attempt to open aircraft door mid-air’

Passengers aboard the plane have since said the incident ruined their Christmas – yet eyewitness reports claim it was caused after the teen lost her temper at a 10-year-old because they were coughing loudly

An easyJet flight descended into chaos after a teenage girl attacked cabin crew and tried to open the plane door mid-flight. The jet, loaded up with festive holidaymakers bound for Gatwick from Antalya in Turkey on December 27, was forced to divert to Bari in Italy after the teen was pinned down while threatening to stab staff.

Passengers aboard the plane have since said the incident ruined their Christmas – yet eyewitness reports claim it was caused after the teen lost her temper at a 10-year-old because they were coughing loudly. Speaking to the Sun one passenger described it as the “journey from hell”.

Nadine, 39, from Reading, and her daughter Jernai, 19, were present at the unsavoury scene. The mum said: “We went to Turkey for Christmas, where we had a really lovely holiday at a hotel called Aska Lara. We were all nice and relaxed, but then it turned to hell on the flight home. It’s ruined my Christmas.”

The teen, who is thought to have been flying with her mother and grandmother, is understood to have told the child to stop coughing and followed her when she went to the toilet. She is understood to have then shouted at her and stopped her from getting out. The mother of the child is understood to have gone down to where this was taking place, but both she and her daughter were left in tears by the teen before being escorted to the front of the jet by staff.

The teen ignored the cabin crew’s calls to sit down and met them with shouted abuse, before she stormed down towards the back of the plane. “She was trying to open the door and she broke the handle,” Nadine added. “The crew members pulled her away and restrained her.”

She was then boxed in by staff, one of which made efforts to calm her down – but things went from bad to worse when she threatened to stab one of the them. She is understood to have run around the plane, clattering into doors and passengers and at one point threw a shoe at fellow passengers, the eyewitness recounted.

Eventually the cabin crew managed to get her to sit down, but by this point people onboard had become “nervous”. The pilot is understood to have at this point made the decision to land the plane due to what the witness described as “safety reasons”.

The Daily Star has contacted easyJet for further information on the incident. The airline said in the statement first received by the Sun: “Flight EZY8556 from Antalya to London Gatwick on 27th December diverted to Bari. It was met by police due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard.

“EasyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time.

“While such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard.

“As this led to the crew feeling unfit to operate, the flight was delayed overnight and scheduled to operate the following day.

“The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s priority. While this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused. We did all we could to minimise the impact of the diversion, providing hotel accommodation and meals. We have advised customers we will reimburse any expenses incurred.”