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Drunk Irish passengers start brawl on flight bound for Greece, pilot makes emergency landing
In another example of the kind of incident becoming all too common these days, a brawl broke out on board an Irish charter flight to Greece recently, which resulted in the plane having to make an emergency landing in Italy.This one involved five drunk Irish men (read: stag party).
Witnesses say the fracas broke out first between two of them, though over what has not been made public. One started going through the cabin smashing overhead compartments. More joined the melee.
"They had a couple of drinks on them, they were extremely aggressive," one witness tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper. "There were loads of girls and a couple of children and I think some people felt a bit threatened."
Obviously the captain did too. He diverted the flight to Venice, where a gaggle of Italian cops were waiting to haul off the men.
The flight, operated by Irish charter company Futura Gael, left two hours later and arrived in Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete, without further incident.
It's unclear just how out of hand things became on board, or whether any of the 162 other passengers on board were injured. Futura Gael has issued apologies to the passengers for the incident and delay, and says it is conducting its own internal investigation.
There seems to be a lot more of these incidents happening lately.
More troublemakers in the sky
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
christine Aug 19th 2008 2:22PM
Why does the title have to read "Drunk Irish passengers"? They are simply "passengers"!
Can you imagine if it read "Drunk Black passengers"
or "Drunk Italian passengers"...or any other
religious or ethinic group for that matter. Sounds
like prejudice to me!
ANTHONY RODRIGUEZ Aug 19th 2008 3:01PM
I AGREE WITH YOU 100%.
THEY WERE DRUNK PASSENGERS FIRST, REGARDLESS THEIR ETHNICITY OR RELIGION...
ANTHONY ~ NYC
Michelle Middleton Aug 19th 2008 2:47PM
There should be more severe penalties than simply being arrested...they should be banned from flying for a period of time. They disrupted the flight and caused delays due to an emergency landing...and that also adds up to added expense to the airline, which gets passed on to us...the passengers!
I agree with the above comment, too. It should have read "drunk passengers"...their nationality or race had nothing to do with their outrageous behavior.
KATE Aug 19th 2008 2:46PM
Let's see...I think they said Irish because they WERE IRISH!!
Airlines should stop serving beer and any alcohol for the safety OF ALL PASSENGERS. Too many jerks and alcoholics in the world.
KATE Aug 19th 2008 2:47PM
Let's see...I think they said Irish because they WERE IRISH!!
Airlines should stop serving beer and any alcohol for the safety OF ALL PASSENGERS. Too many jerks and alcoholics in the world.
g-MAN Aug 19th 2008 3:40PM
I doubt I'm the first to point this out, but isn't "Drunk Irish Passengers" redundant?
Deirdre Aug 19th 2008 7:43PM
I agree with Christine 100%-Why does it have to read "Irish" passengers when they could have been any nationality???? I realise that their behavior is non-excusable and the fact that the flight had to be diverted is evidence of how rough they must have been.
Also in the above report the writer or "blogger" as they now have to be called says "read STAG party" WHY? Because there were 5 of them or they were an actual stag party? I have lived in the US 25 years now and am 36, that means since the age of eleven I have heard my country slammed repeatedly because it's alright to do so. Well it isn't! Perhaps they should print "DUMB AMERICAN" every article they print in relation to the US
It is NOT necessary and I for one AM SICK OF IT!!!!!
PhilUSAFRet Aug 19th 2008 7:58PM
Yeah, drunk Irishman is kind of redundant
Lauren Glenn Aug 19th 2008 9:32PM
It sounds redundant actually... Drunk Irish... they could've left the word "drunk" off. ;)
Seriously, they're drunk *and* irish. If they were black, they'd be drunk and black. If they were transgendered, they'd be drunk, transgendered.
Stop reading into things because you want to start a fight.
Lauren
dee dee Aug 19th 2008 11:40PM
The flight originated in Ireland and thus they were Irish passengers. If it orginated in the US, it would be American passengers (not black, white or some other nationality), or Italy, Italian passengers. People are just being a little sensitive here but if they said an Irish charter plane, then it was redundant and should have just said passengers.
Christina Aug 20th 2008 2:55AM
Exactly. I'm sick of people of my nationality being bashed. Blacks in this country have a "right" to things, because their anscestors were persecuted. Same with Native Americans. And nearly every ethnic group in America is considered "equal". Except for the Irish. Apparently, it's still ok to be predjudiced against the Irish. Apparently, Irish don't have feelings.
joy Aug 26th 2008 2:15PM
The reason for adding "Irish" to the title was to show that for once it wasn't a bunch of drunk Brits. They are famous for being really drunk sh1ts on holiday. Seriously.
lewis Aug 19th 2008 2:30PM
I Must say,some people reinforce the sterotype,these limystompers give validity to the drunk irish azshole. They should have been tossed off at 48,000 feet and if they were i am quite certian they would have sobered up realy quick, and regreated thier actions before they splatted.
Catherine Aug 19th 2008 3:14PM
I think you Lewis need to go back to school. Us Limystompers (as you call us), don't always take offense to namecalling, but we do take offense to being criticized by someone with bad grammar and spelling challenges.
Get rid of alcohol on planes, have the passengers who caused the problem reimburse all the passengers and the airlines.
Angiebaby Aug 19th 2008 2:27PM
They should have had a female flight attendant throw on a Nun's Habit and walk up and down the aisle smacking a ruler against her palm. That would have put these 5 right in line. Might've even made 'em cry or weewee their pants.... You just have to know how to deal with them drunken Irish lads!
DaninSvitavy Aug 19th 2008 2:27PM
I'm a USA citizen who lives in both the USA and Europe and therefore flies a great deal. Happily I have never had an experience with unruly passengers. What is referred to as not uncommon has never been seen by me. But I know the potential for it and would feel threatened by it. There must be zero tolerance for such behavior…zero. There must be high penalties and banishment from air travel. Such conduct must be seen as non-political terrorism. There were certainly terrorized passengers and crew in this incident.
Theo Aug 19th 2008 2:30PM
Sounds like an accurate headline to me.
Christine Aug 19th 2008 2:43PM
Theo...were you there to witness them as being Irish?
Do you believe everything you read?
They were drunk passengers...period. Perhaps if you
were on the plane it might have read "drunk chipmunks"
priscprather@aol.com Aug 20th 2008 2:40AM
Theo... I must say I agree. Why all the fuss over the headline. I didn't have any visions of little green leprechauns just men being drunk and unruly. Irish they are and drunk they were. Big harry deal!!!
Michael Aug 19th 2008 2:36PM
I agree completely with Christine. There is no need for redundancy. You need only to say Irish and that should suffice to know that they were DRUNKARDS!