Ryanair was forced to divert a flight from Agadir to London on Wednesday after a violent altercation broke out among passengers over seating arrangements. The flight left Morocco as scheduled, but tensions among passengers escalated just 36 minutes into the flight, according to British media reports. The plane landed in Marrakech after heated arguments escalated into physical altercations with punches thrown and screams heard. Upon landing, police intervened, removing the disruptive passengers in an operation that lasted two hours. The remaining passengers had to wait until Thursday to continue their journey to London. «They were trying to punch each other», one passenger told The Sun, recalling that the argument started when a man asked a woman to move so he could sit next to his family. The same man approached the woman a second time after she initially refused to swap seats. He reportedly started threatening her, leading her husband to defend her, which turned into a physical altercation. A video of the brawl shows passengers shouting and pushing each other in the aisle. «Then a lady in the row behind started to have a panic attack because of everything going on. She was screaming, and there were kids crying. It was like a snowball effect», another passenger said. «This flight from Agadir to London Stansted diverted to Marrakech after a small group of passengers became disruptive, and during which time another passenger became ill onboard», a Ryanair spokesperson said. «The crew called ahead for both medical and police assistance, which met the aircraft upon arrival at Marrakech. The small group of disruptive passengers was then removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie. The passenger who became ill was provided with oxygen onboard before being treated by airport medics, who determined that they were not fit to fly», the spokesperson added.
