Number of passengers held after 'air-rage' incident

A NUMBER of Irish and British men in their late 20s have been arrested by Italian police following a so called air-rage incident on board a flight from Dublin to Crete on Thursday night.

The charter flight run by Dublin-based airline Futura Gael diverted to Venice after fighting broke out on board. The airline said that five people were removed from the aircraft by Italian police.

The remaining 167 passengers continued their flight approximately two hours later and arrived safely in Heraklion airport early yesterday morning.

It is understood that the men had been drinking in Dublin airport before their flight.

An argument broke out between the men shortly after take- off, which escalated during the flight.

Several young people from Dublin who were travelling to Crete to celebrate their Leaving Certificate results were on board. However, they are understood not to have been involved in the incident.

Aoife O’Reilly (18), from Stillorgan, a former student of Muckross Park College in Donnybrook, Dublin, who witnessed the incident, said passengers felt threatened by the men.

“We were up in the air and two guys – who were surprisingly a lot older than us – started fights.

“Then we had to be redirected to Venice for a couple of hours. The police came on and had to get them off,” she told RTÉ news yesterday.

The men “had a couple of drinks on them” but had not seemed very inebriated, she said.

“They were extremely aggressive. As soon as they sat down there were problems. One of the guys half-way through the flight stood up and started smashing the overhead compartments with both his hands. There were loads of girls and a couple of children and I think some people felt a bit threatened.”

The airline yesterday apologised to the “innocent parties on board” for the disruption to their holiday, but said the decision to have the disruptive passengers removed had to be taken in the interests of safety.

“The captain then made the decision, for the safety of all on board, to divert to Venice, where the aircraft was met by members of the Italian police,” it said.

The airline is conducting an internal investigation into the incident a spokesman said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs could not confirm yesterday if consular assistance had been sought by any of the men detained by Italian police.