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Ryanair passenger arrested over "rubber sandwich" complaint
When 52 year old Henrik Ulven ordered a "fresh made premium sandwich" on his Ryanair flight, he fully expected to receive just that. Instead, he described the food as inedible and "tasting like rubber" - so asked a flight attendant for something different. According to Ulven, his request did not go down too well, and the flight attendant told him that if he didn't stop complaining, she'd report him to the authorities.
Ulven thought she was kidding, but upon landing at Norway's Rygge airport, local police boarded the plane and escorted him off. According to the police, he had given the cabin crew "a mouthful."
So there you have it - if you fly Ryanair, you'll eat what you are given, keep your mouth shut and refrain from complaining. Obviously there are always two sides to a story, but to have one of your customers arrested because he did not approve of the quality of your food takes "low cost carrier" to a whole new level.
[Image from: Corbis]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike Jul 22nd 2010 3:38PM
there is a policy for disruptive passengers. You dont get arrested for complaining over a sandwich. If the sandwich is in a bad state, you'd get your money back, or you could have something of the same price instead (maybe another sandwich!), it's that simple. But, seriously, of course you wont get any money back only because you didnt like your sandwich. But you dont get arrested over that either.
Having a passenger arrested means lots of stress, paperwork and delays for the airline staff, it's not something you do just because you feel like it. The article only tells the point of view of the passenger, which is not really explaining anything. The reason for him being arrested is not the sandwich complaint, it's something else. For example, if he lacked respect to the cabin crew, which I can assume over the fact that he was arrested, then that's a different story. In the end, the cabin crew has the last word over safety related issues in the aircraft, they are trained for that and passengers are legally bounded to obey certain rules, you know there are things that you cannot say and you cannot do in an aircraft. Having a disruptive passenger on board really compromises the safety of all passengers and the safety of the cabin crew themselves, consider we are talking about a enclosed environment at 37000 feet. There is no room for a bad behaviour there.
But, once again, cabin crew dont get people arrested for no good reason.
EurotripDon Jul 22nd 2010 8:01PM
1. Norwegian men usually get drunk on flights, and
2. They typically have a sense of entitlement.
I lived there 4 years and had to fly often. No judgement, just facts.
kt Jul 23rd 2010 2:00AM
wtf fly ryan anir anyways?
Unexpected Traveller Aug 4th 2010 9:41AM
Ryanair have a long history of making the description of some non-service sound a lot better than it really is as I found out on a flight last year: http://wp.me/ppqxP-co