Newcastle Airport alert: Police remove 'drunk' passengers from Flybe plane

The flight was delayed for about five hours

Police boarded a plane due to take off at Newcastle Airport after it was claimed passengers in a stag party were drunk.

The FlyBe service to Stansted at 14:25 BST on Sunday was delayed for about five hours after the incident.

The men denied being abusive or drunk and claimed the airline used the incident as an excuse to avoid paying compensation for a delayed flight.

FlyBe said it had a "zero tolerance" approach to unruly behaviour.

One member of the stag party, who were from London, said one of the men used the toilet at the front of the plane while it was on the runway and was told to come out by a flight attendant.

'Scapegoat'

"No-one was drunk, no-one was being disorderly, no-one was being rowdy," Fouad Haghighat said.

"One person was removed because he did not follow an instruction. In my opinion he did not have a choice. He had started relieving himself and could not stop.

"That was no reason to remove 19 people from the plane and accuse us of being drunk and disorderly and using us as a scapegoat for their delay."

Stag party member Fouad Haghighat said the group were not abusive

The men were not allowed to board the rescheduled flight.

No arrests resulted from the incident, but a 30-year-old was reported for an offence under the Civil Aviation Act.

Fellow passenger Kerry Taylor, from Essex, told the BBC "there was no shouting, hollering or anything like that".

'Immediate action'

A airline spokesman said: "Flybe sincerely regrets the inconvenience experienced by passengers.

"This resulted from the threatening and overly abusive behaviour exhibited towards the cabin crew immediately prior to departure, initially initiated by four members of a stag party.

"As such, and in line with a zero tolerance policy with any form of on-board behaviour that might in any way compromise the safe operation of any flight, the captain reported the situation to the police who took the necessary immediate action."

A Northumbria Force spokesman said: "We were called by airport staff to help remove a group of drunk and disorderly passengers from a plane at Newcastle Airport.

"The group was escorted off the plane and spoken to."