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AIR FIGHT
Shocking moment cops drag man off Ryanair flight from UK in HEADLOCK after mid-air clash forced emergency landing
This is the fourth time Ryanair have been forced to divert to Portugal in the past month
A RYANAIR plane from the UK was forced to make an emergency landing following a group of mouthy and aggressive passengers.
The unruly brawlers allegedly pushed a steward into the toilet and harassed both passengers and "shaken" crew members until cops stormed on board and dragged one off in a headlock.
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Shocking footage shows one man fighting against Portuguese cops as they drag him off the plane by his arms and in a headlock.
The passenger was then taken to the floor and carried by four cops to the door of the plane.
A second video shows him being handcuffed as other passengers can be heard saying "yeah cuff him" and "get him off".
The man was arrested for "the crimes of disobedience, resisting arrest and coercion against a civil servant" according to the Portuguese police and is due to appear in court soon.
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A man on the flight spoke to The Sun and said a group of seven people were behind the horror scenes on the Ryanair flight.
Onlooker James recalled three men and four girls in the group after first noticing them causing chaos in the line waiting to board the flight.
James said: “They were swearing and being rude, rude to other passengers."
After getting on the plane the group of troublemakers were sat at the back and kept on causing issues and being loud and obnoxious.
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A second onlooker told "When it started to get a bit out of hand one of the stewards tried to intercede and ended up somehow getting knocked over.
"At this point the captain gave a warning over the speaker that unacceptable behaviour would not be tolerated and if it did not stop we would divert to Portugal."
According to James, one of the men in the group pushed the steward into the toilet at the rear of the plane - leaving the bathroom out of order because of the damage.
After the rowdiness continued for some time a steward went to speak to the plane's captain.
"Antonio (the steward) spoke to the captain and the captains gone ‘that’s it we’re diverting’ and then over the speaker he told everyone to get in their seats and put seatbelts on due to ‘operational needs'," Simon said.
Once the plane landed, around 10 minutes after the announcement, several cops boarded the plane to deal with the situation.
A steward on the flight can be heard telling the police: “Drunk passengers. They started harassing us, harassing the aircraft and started harassing all the passengers.
"There were seven of them. They were sitting all together. We found a bottle at the back from Duty Free.”
According to James, the first five came off the plane when told to peacefully.
One of the girls “screamed at a steward saying ‘how dare you, how dare you’” as she filmed the crew members before being led away to the tarmac.
The man who was handcuffed reportedly told the cops and crew to “go away” and “get out of my way” before the cops grabbed him and put him down on the floor to be handcuffed.
He was then thrown into the back of a police car as the other six were sent away in a separate van.
James said: “The crew were quite shaken to be honest with you. I did feel sorry for all of them but they were professional throughout.”
Some of the other passengers can be heard cheering and clapping as they watched the police march the troublemaker along with the others off the plane.
Portuguese police sources (PSP) said seven passengers had been involved in an altercation and one person had been arrested.
They said: "Once inside the aircraft, the PSP, in contact with the crew members, discovered that the passengers were causing problems by shouting and repeatedly banging on the overhead luggage holds as well as drinking alcohol and ignoring the instructions given by the flight crew.
"However, one of the unruly passengers adopted hostile and aggressive behaviour, refusing to leave and repeatedly disobeying orders given to him.
"As a result the police were forced to arrest him and remove him from the aircraft using physical force given the constant resistance offered."
The plane left London Luton airport at 8am and was due to reach Lanzarote at 12.15pm local time today.
It was diverted to Faro instead and touched down at the airport in Portugal’s Algarve region at around 10.50am local time.
A Ryanair spokesman said: "This flight from London Luton to Lanzarote diverted to Faro when passengers became disruptive onboard.
"Crew called ahead for police assistance and the aircraft was met by local police upon arrival who removed the disruptive passengers.
"The flight continued to Lanzarote following a short delay. This is now a matter for local police.”
Last month three Ryanair planes from the UK had to divert to Faro for different reasons.
On December 20, a Boeing 737 operated by the budget airline landed at the Algarve airport with 202 people on board after diverting from its original route of London Stansted to Lisbon because of a technical problem.
A "red code" alert was issued and led to 35 emergency response vehicles and nearly 80 responders including firefighters and civil protection workers being put on standby, although the plane landed safely.
On December 12 another Ryanair plane heading from Manchester to Tenerife South had to reroute to the same airport amid another "red alert", with that incident also being blamed on a technical issue with the aircraft.
And the Tuesday before that a Ryanair plane heading from London Stansted to Morocco landed at Faro in similar circumstances after the pilot fell ill.
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A spokesman for Ryanair said after the December 5 incident: "This flight from Stansted to Morocco diverted to Faro when one of the pilots became ill.
"The aircraft landed normally, and passengers were transferred to an alternative aircraft operated by another crew before continuing to Morocco."
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