A flight carrying more than 200 people from Bali, Indonesia to Melbourne, Australia was forced to turn around after a passenger tried to force open a plane door as the aircraft flew over the Indian Ocean, low-cost carrier Jetstar said in a statement Tuesday.
“We had an aircraft return to Denpasar (Bali’s airport) last night after a disruptive passenger attempted to open one of the aircraft doors and was abusive to our crew,” the airline said of the incident on Monday night, March 31.
The passenger was removed from the aircraft by local authorities in Bali, it added.
According to a video circulating on social media, a woman in the back of the aircraft managed to lift the door’s handle before a warning signal alerted the crew, the captain said over the plane speakers.
Data from flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed that the plane turned around over the Indian Ocean about an hour into the flight.
Jetstar did not say exactly how many passengers and crew were on the plane traveling from Bali to Melbourne.
“The safety and welfare of our customers and crew is our top priority and we thank them for the way they responded to the situation,” the airline said in its statement.
“This sort of unacceptable behavior will never be tolerated on our flights.”
Incidents of unruly passengers have been reported in the past, including of passengers deploying emergency exits and sliding down an evacuation slide, hitting and biting flight attendants, as well as throwing punches at flight crew, forcing aircraft to divert from their intended destination. But aviation authorities are clamping down and enforcing stricter actions.
Last year, a passenger was charged in federal court after he forced open a plane door and injured an attendant mid-flight, prompting fellow passengers on the American Airlines flight from Milwaukee to Dallas to duct-tape him.
In 2023, a man who opened the emergency door of an Asiana Airlines plane just before landing told police that he felt suffocated and wanted to get off the plane quickly. The airline responded by halting the sale of seats near emergency exits on Airbus A321s.
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