"Fracas" on EasyJet Newcastle Flight

[ORAC]

BBC: Arrests after 'fight' on flight

Eight men have been arrested at a Tyneside airport after reports of a fight on board a flight from Spain. Northumbria Police said they were called to meet the EasyJet flight from Alicante when it landed at Newcastle Airport late on Sunday night. A spokesman said the arrests were made after reports of a "fracas" between the men on board the Boeing 737.

EasyJet said none of the 130 passengers and five crew onboard the flight was injured during the disturbance. A statement released by the airline said: "EasyJet has a zero tolerance policy towards any unreasonable behaviour and as a result eight passengers were removed from the flight by police for disruptive behaviour on landing at Newcastle."

[wizo]

If this is true they should lock them up and throw away the key. :ugh:

[sud747]

Very "easy"said by EZ not to tolerate such behaviour, but when marketing a few "cheap" tickets on every flight they are bound to have such pax on their flights anyway ( this is the mix of our society). Cope with it or increase the price.:E

[G-LOST]

Where is the indication they did not cope with it? They dealt with the fracas, they landed, and the Police removed the d%ckheads... Standard stuff - all too common nowadays and not confined to Easy. I have a zero tolerance policy and my crew know it. I suspect most of us take a hard line nowadays.

[sud747]

The question is not if they were able to cope with it, i am sure they did, but that it is now going to the public, stop whinging. No one tolerates such behaviour. So next time read between the lines please (captain).:E

[Will Hung]

Complete and total low-life vermin ! Well done to the crew I say.

[chris1001]

My wife was travelling on this flight by herself and said one of the men should never have been allowed to travel in the first place as he could hardly stand up.
Prior to boarding he was made to wait to one side for a few minutes but was eventually allowed on. She didn't witness any fighting on board but said they were using foul language which is obviously intimidating particularly as there were children on board.
Unfortunately this type of incident is now all too common on flights to the likes of Alicante, Tenerife and Palma. Anti-social behavior and foul language should not be tolerated on any flight. I can imagine some passengers were pretty nervous.

[DaveO'Leary]

Umm? I presume the 'fracas' was due to an over indulgence of alcohol at the departure. Maybe 'check-in' might have their ass kicked? Just guessing? It's called passing the buck.

Dave

[agent x]

why blame the check in staff, dont they have Dispatchers at the gate who could have asked the captain? Majority of pi**ed pax get in that state after they have checked in as they wait for boarding. Kick the dispatchers/captains ass, they have overall responsibility!!!!

[SXB]

Agent X
Fair point but be aware that in many operations the check in staff and the staff at the gate are the same people, especially in smaller airports. Also, it's sometimes difficult to spot if someone is drunk when you're processing so many people in such a short period of time.

I never drink alcohol before or while flying but I've been on numerous flights which have contained drunks, while their behaviour has sometimes been inexcusable I've felt, on a number of occasions, that the CC didn't handle the situation particularly well and probably made it worse, especially on the loco flights.

[Little Boy]

Sud747

Why assume the troublemakers had cheap tickets?

[Piltdown Man]

My understanding is that it's the gate staff who do the boarding and not the dispatcher. They take your boarding card/remove your coupon etc. and the next person you will meet will be one of the Cabin Crew. Now it's more difficult to spot and evict drunks and will almost certainly cause more inconvenience to the rest of the passengers. And who is going to ask the captain "There's somebody who appears to be drunk, will you take them?"

PM

[1DC]

This has been going on for years and i for one am glad that the guilty ones are being held to account for their actions.
In the seventies took the family to LA with BA.
A Welsh rugby team were also travelling,at first they were quite funny, entertaining the passengers with their jokes and general good humour then they got pi$$ed and became annoying.Then the cabin crew had to close the bar to them and they became angry,then they demolished their duty frees and became a mob looking for an argument with anyone prepared to give them one. I told one that they would be lucky to get into the US, he replied that they went to Boston the previous year and all that happened was that they had to wait 8 hours until they were sober before being allowed through immigration.
Travelling with them was a lad called "Benny",anyone who saw Crossroads will know why he was called Benny.One of the drunks told Benny that if he went as far to the front of the aeroplane as he could someone would give him a drink for nothing.Benny staggered off and managed to make it to first class where he threw up over a passenger.On arrival little Benny was first off between two large policemen.I don't know what happened to the rugby team but when we finally cleared customs and immigration who was staggering about on the sidewalk looking for his mates, Benny!!
Fortunately it wouldn't happen today but for Benny it was just a fastrack out of the airport building..

[Lee Frost]

By the book, drunk pax should be intercepted at the gate...in practice you are asking boarding staff to detain people.

They are often very young, with limited experience of handling possible confrontational situations. A one-day course in confrontation / anger management isn't enough to equip boarding staff with the skills necessary to get the customers from A to B safely.

Its quite unfair to make the comment about kicking people's (boarding staff, dispatchers, Cpts etc) backsides if drunk pax manage to get on - what is needed is a clearer policy towards behaviour, such as the warning cards you sometimes read at check-in these days...ie abusive behaviour will not be tolerated.

The day to day problems encountered by boarding staff are not as black and white as they are sometimes represented on threads like this. I could conjur up so many examples, but remember when boarding the clock is ticking and time is usually tight enough...

On a wider level, since there seems to be no great taboo about shouting and bawling and behaving like the scum of the earth, I think incidents like this will always continue to occur.

What you don't read on here or in the papers are the many, many times people are quietly taken to the side and informed that the crew are concerned about their fitness for flying due their condition, and boarding is now subject to them playing by the rules. Crew are also in the position to accept or reject and further alcoholic drinks are out of the question. If done well, nobody loses face (I think this is quite important) and the job gets done.

Its basic communication skills, having the judgement on when to act, the confidence to intervene, and the knowledge of what is appropriate for each situation. That takes time to acquire.

Note its not just the shellsuit brigade, the most respectable looking pax often present very challenging situations....