Has anyone experienced police meeting a flight after disruptive passengers?

[Policeontheplane]

Has anyone experienced police on a plane?

Yesterday our flight was eventful. Some drunk people moved themselves to the empty seats in front of me and produced to drink a litre of vodka which they then dropped in front of staff. The staff removed their passports, cue their bad language getting worse. It was all made worse by the drunk man behind me deciding to egg them on. At some point of the guys in front of me apparently threatened another passenger. Air steward told pliot who presumably contacted police. As we were landing the drunk guys in front of us had a big falling out and one got out of his seat, took his suitcase out of the overhead locker and ended up swapping seat.

When we landed everyone was told to return to seats and the air steward told the man who had threatened a passenger to get his bags and escorted him off first - not sure what hapened. I suspect police were waiting for him. Other drunk passengers were just allowed to leave.

Has anyone had experience of this? Will any of them be barred from flying on the airline.

Maybe they thought he was more of a flight risk if they tried to take him aside?
I agree @UhOhRatPoo please do an AMA!

Or on planes?

It's happened to me once.
A horrible little scroat of a man (drunk) threatened to take his belt off and hit his wife with it. He also had two sons, one around 10 the other around 16, the poor 16 year old huddled in his seat with his hoodie over his head.
The man stood up, presumably to take his belt off, my husband and another man (both sitting a couple of rows behind) told him to sit down. He then threatened to bite my husband's nose off and called the other man a racist name....he made his way to husband, and I was so scared husband would end up in a wrestling match, and spoil our own holiday, I stood up, and so did a younger woman, and we blocked the aisle. He called us cunts a couple of times, but didn't try to touch us.
Eventually....and it seems like forever, a couple of stewards arrived, persuaded him to go to the back of the plane, where they seemed to be trying to reason with him. He did quiet down.
Stewards took statements off a couple of us, and when we did land, we were told to stay in our seats.
Police boarded and escorted him off.
His family were on the flight home 2 weeks later, minus the scroat, who hopefully was still languishing in a Spanish prison.

Because the vast majority of people are perfectly capable of mixing flying with maybe a glass of wine or a beer with a meal, either on the ground or on board.

There's a minority that it appears can't, and as a P P has mentioned there are certainly problematic routes or even specific flights...a proportionate response might be to target those flights.....

We got into a physical altercation coming off a flight a few years back. They were arrested on the spot at baggage claim. They were on the flight home.

Yes and then I was contacted afterwards to give a witness statement.

Another drunken episode. Seems to be a common theme reading back people's experiences.

I've never witnessed police on a plane, however I have worked on police incidents in the control room whereby wanted people have boarded their plane to be subsequently arrested pre flight. Probably dressed in their shorts and flip flops.

One such guy was a really nasty piece of work and I wish I could have been witness to his on board arrest.

Will any of them be barred from flying on the airline.

I would very much hope so. Obviously this story below is more serious in that the aircraft had to make an emergency diversion, but the airlines don't put up with this sort of nonsense.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l7vrj6z31o

I was on a flight with a very well known right wing activist who was being deported from a country he had attempted to go on holiday to. The police were there when we landed, but didn't arrest him straight away, until he stuck his head through the hole where the cases come out onto the carousel (we'd been waiting well over an hour for our bags). Then they pounced and dragged him away. Looked to me like they were just waiting for an excuse to be honest.

Am ex cabin crew (this is part the reason I jacked it in) also ex ground crew.
It happens frequently. Mainly drinkers. Sometimes domestics. 20 years ago you didnt get the amount shit going down on flights that you do today.
In most cases they are barred from ever flying with that airline again and someetimes prosecuted depending on thier "crime". When I was Ground Crew we would often get emails from HO saying Mr Xyz booked on today's flight to X or has attempted to book onto x flight and must be refused travel.

They sometimes book through 3rd parties even when they know they're banned but because of APIS needed before travel, they always get caught. And no they dont get a refund.
The last airline i worked for was a holiday one .Some Turkey flights had a bad reputation for trouble but also need to watch the Thursday and Friday flights to Spain and Portugal when the Stag and Hens go for a weekend on the piss.

I don’t have experience of this - maybe my usual destinations are too boring??? However, I am always amazed when I aim at the airport and I see people drinking huge amounts of alcohol. Maybe I am envious because if I did that I would probably throw up or faint (or both).

Years ago we flew to the Maldives with someone like Thomson/Tui. It was like being trapped on a rough estate but in the air. All that was missing were a few feral dogs humping in the aisle for the full on sensory experience.

We had one woman inconsolable in the galley because she was sat next to a woman whose partner was on the other side of the plane. As soon as the seat belts were off he was straight over and leaning over crying woman for a grope of his lass. One thing led to another and the poor woman saw things no one needs to be seeing at 30,000 feet.

Meanwhile someone else was fagging it in the loo, there was a mini riot about the trolley not coming round often enough and someone’s TV wasn’t working and it needed to be “fucking sorted now”.

Proper classy it was. After several hours of this chaos the pilot came on and announced we were about to enter Middle Eastern airspace where he’d be very happy to divert and start off loading passengers into the loving arms of a notoriously dodgy justice system if everyone didn’t calm the fuck down.

Are people who aren’t arrested banned from flying. I hope so but I suspect not.

Not for disruptive passengers, but police and border guards boarded the plane on landing and told everyone to return to their seats, and escorted a couple of passengers off the plane, one in handcuffs. I don't think they were connected in any way. One of them had been canoodling with his American girlfriend for the entire flight across the aisle from where I was sitting. This was a flight from Beirut, Lebanon and I think the detained passengers were both Lebanese - at least the American girlfriend of the canoodling one told me he was - she was completely bewildered and upset, so I took her under my wing through immigration and baggage reclaim. Some Border guards approached her and said to go with them and they would explain everything. I would love to know what happened. I hope she hadn't just been used as a decoy. She seemed so young and frightened.
On the same flight, I found my hold luggage had been searched, presumably at Beirut airport, as I had been pulled out of the queue at one of the many security points there, swabbed and patted down. My suitcase was left in a considerably tidier state than when I had packed it, everything folded neatly, and a polite pro forma note left at the top explaining what they had done. Noone else in my group received that treatment, my 70 year old face must just look suspicious!

Yeah, I've seen someone denied boarding who was rolling drunk.

And a guy behind me on a flight from Tenerife was very drunk after a four hour delay, very abusive to staff and, worse, delaying the tea service. I stood up and told him to pack it in because I needed a cuppa.
Some passengers were joining in with him, goading the staff.

The police were waiting on the tarmac and we saw him being "escorted" away.

On a flight to Amsterdam during Covid, hadn't seen or heard anything during the flight but as we were taxiing flight attendant asked us to remain seated when we got to the gate.
KLM flight attendant told us in a rather direct tone that it was to allow police / security to enter the plane and escort off the man in 25A because he wouldn't put his mask on when asked!
As with the drunks I do wonder why anyone would risk arrest/ criminal record / travel ban

They don't need alcohol on board at all. If you can't have a meal without an alcoholic drink you've got a problem.

Tea, Coffee. Hot Chocolate, Soft drinks and Water all available You won't go thirsty.

Police came on board to arrest a drunken man who was threatening passengers 20 years or so ago. They were very rough with him as he was resisting arrest and was falling on top of people sitting in their seats as he was flailing around.

Also drunken football fans (surprisingly not British ones) on a flight for a match in England. They had alcohol confiscated and were threatened with the police on arrival if they didn’t sit down and shut up!

Yes the airline can ban anyone they want. They dont need a crime to have been committed.
The Captain can refuse anyone they want on the day too, obviously with a valid reason but being an argument I've dick prior to boarding would be reason enough.

Good to know that the reasons for arrest now includes straightforward stupidity. That should make life a lot more bearable (and the prisons a lot more overcrowded).

It's not new. My mum and dad were flying from Toronto to LHR in the mid 1960s.

There was a passenger so drunk, he was utterly obnoxious and eventually tried to put his hand up the skirt of a passing stewardess.

They landed at Prestwick and he was arrested and removed before the flight continued to London.

Not the police, but we were met by an ambulance when another passenger had a medical emergency on our flight. I was surprised, and appalled, when several people complained at having to wait while the patient was moved. Cabin crew had asked if anyone had connecting flights, but no one did, so they didn't need to leg it off the plane.

So if you fancy a glass of prosecco on a flight then you have a drink problem.
Get real, most of us don't get drunk and cause issues. I'm spending my well earned money on a glass of prosecco. I am not an alcoholic, I do not cause an issue on the flight and enjoy the drink without bothering anyone.

Yep, drunken stag do on a flight from Amsterdam to Manchester. The police actually got on and handcuffed them to escort them from the plane. They had a paramedic in tow and it happened to be my uncle which was a massive bonus because once they established nobody needed escorting to hospital he was finished work and gave me a ride home! I'd come from Perth so had a looooong ass day and watching those idiots get arrested after they'd been chucking bottles of vodka about the cabin and sexually harassing both the air stewards and fellow passengers was immensely satisfying. Plus, free taxi and I didn't have to carry my own bags. 😂

Not a drunk flight, but I flew into Dublin a few years ago and the flight boarded row by row from the back. When it was my turn to get off, immigration was waiting at the doors to the terminal to check each passport. They must have been looking for someone