Police taser easyJet passenger in hand luggage dispute
Police had to taser a disruptive passenger on an easyjet flight from Gatwick to Belfast on Thursday morning.
According to tweets from fellow passengers on flight EZY831, the man became abusive just before take-off after an argument about how many pieces of hand luggage he could take on board.
Passenger Nial Copeland tweeted: "Man getting arrested on @easyJet flight home to #Belfast because he wants 2 pieces of hand luggage.
"All because he was insistent of wearing his man purse."
Passengers praised easyJet and Sussex police for the way they handled the incident.
EasyJet confirmed that police boarded the flight due to a passenger behaving disruptively.
"EasyJet’s cabin crew are highly trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
"Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously, do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard and always push for prosecution.
"The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet’s priority."
A man was arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace and is in custody.
All other passengers had to get off the flight, which was delayed by 2hrs 55 minutes.
The passenger, Nial Copeland, later tweeted: "Thankfully for easyJet, that meant they didn’t need to give us a sandwich."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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