An unruly woman who forced a packed holiday jet to make an unscheduled landing is set to be hit with a £15,000 bill.
The woman, who has not been named and is thought to be in her late 40s, was onboard with her family and had been drinking for most of the flight according to eyewitnesses.
Trouble flared two hours after the Wizz Air flight took off from Gatwick to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada last Wednesday afternoon.
The woman swapped seats with another passenger on the plane and then became unruly, swearing to flight crew who had asked her to calm down.
Eventually the pilot decided to divert the plane midway through the five-hour flight and the A321 landed at Athens airport in Greece where it was met by police.
Video footage obtained by shows three officers marching the passenger off the plane while other holiday makers clap and cheer.
Wizz Air is now looking at recouping the extra costs it incurred as a result of the diversion in fuel, staff hours and hotel costs as well as timetable disruption, through the courts.
It follows on from an announcement in January when low-cost carrier Ryanair said it would be suing an unruly passenger who caused a Dublin to Lanzarote flight to make an unscheduled stop in Portugal last April.
It is thought a replacement plane and crew had to make the return trip to Gatwick and the flight back was delayed 24 hours as a result of the delay, incurring further costs.
When asked what possible action Wizz Air would take, a spokesperson told : ‘It would involve filing legal proceedings against the passenger seeking damages owing to the substantial disruption it caused to other passengers, our crew and Wizz Air’s operations more generally.’
An earlier statement said: ‘We can confirm that a passenger aboard our W9 5777 London Gatwick – Hurghada flight on the 12th of March had to be removed from the flight due to inappropriate behaviour towards our crew.
‘This passenger’s inexcusable conduct forced this flight to divert to Athens where it was delayed for a short time before going on to the destination.
‘The safety and security of our passengers and crew is our number one priority. Wizz Air has a strict policy against harassment and passenger misconduct and will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to ensure the safety and security of everyone aboard our flights.
‘It is completely unacceptable that passengers who work hard to enjoy a trip away are negatively impacted due to one passenger’s failure to behave.’
An airline source said: ‘These stops due to unruly passengers are getting more and more frequent and people need to know the consequences of their actions.
‘Unscheduled stops cost money, and they also cause disruption to passengers and to crew and plane rostering, it’s not right that airlines and passengers should suffer.’
In a statement on Friday, Greek police told : ’On Wednesday March 12, a British national passenger under the influence of alcohol, and with a child, was causing problems on a flight.
‘An emergency landing was made after the captain was informed and she was arrested for obstruction. She was taken to the prosecutor’s office and has now been released. No further detail will be forthcoming.’
Passenger Micheal Hands, 58, who was onboard with his girlfriend Catherine Roberts, told : ‘It was absolute bedlam, I’ve never seen anything like it.
‘This woman had clearly been drinking all flight and maybe the crew shouldn’t have carried on serving her as it probably led to her kicking off.
‘She was sitting behind me and then she moved seat, but she wasn’t happy and started arguing with the cabin crew.
‘By this point we were two hours into the flight and somewhere over Greece and rhs kept saying “Call the police, call the police”.
‘To be fair to the crew they did their best but in the end it just got too much and the captain came on the tannoy and said: “If the unruly passenger doesn’t return to hers eat in two minutes we are making an emergency landing”.
‘Of course, there was some booing and jeering at the woman, but nothing happened and in the end, we landed at Athens and the police came onboard and took her off – much to everyone’s delight.’
Flight tracking apps show flight W95777 taking off 20 minutes late from Gatwick at 14.26 on Wednesday afternoon with a scheduled arrival of 21.25 local after a five-hour flight.
Around two and a half hours later just as the flight crosses into Greek airspace it carries on southwards towards Egypt before making a U turn and heading back towards Athens.
After a two hour delay on the ground while the woman is dealt with the plane then takes off and lands at Hurghada just over two hours later than scheduled.
One holidaymaker is heard to shout: ’Too late to cry now,’ as the woman is escorted off the plane.
While another shouts: ’Sorry, doesn’t really cut it,’ as she is taken down the aisle and the woman replies: ’Shout your mouth.’
In another clip after the woman is taken off the captain is heard announcing the plane to thanks passengers for ‘their understanding’ adding they will ‘hopefully get them to the right destination as quickly as possible’.