I generally don’t feel claustrophobic anywhere other than in the cabin of a plane. It’s so cramped, all of us strangers shoved into a tube, ass to elbows, every minor movement potentially disturbing someone else. So, pardon me for being impressed by a 10-person brawl, but when it happens midair on a commercial passenger plane, I can only tip my hat in solemn respect to the combatants involved for somehow managing to squeeze an Old West-style saloon melee into a 17-year-old Airbus A320 carrying 186 passengers.
According to a report from the BBC, easyJet Flight EZY3352 had barely been airborne for 30 minutes after departing Tenerife for Liverpool when a group of about 10 passengers allegedly decided the in-flight entertainment should be physical combat.
The captain, like a road trip dad keeping an eye on the brawl in the backseat through the rearview mirror, turned the aircraft around because the fight posed a safety risk. Police were waiting when the plane landed back at Tenerife South Airport, where the disruptive passengers got an unscheduled layover in police custody.
Everyone Else on the Flight Eventually Made It to Their Destination Safely
The rest of the passengers eventually continued to Liverpool after getting a front row seat to a donnybrook better than any fight the UFC has featured in years.
easyJet said its crews are trained to handle disruptive behavior and emphasized that passenger and crew safety remains its highest priority, though I don’t think easyJet crews are put through a course on riot control.
Airline seats have become smaller, and people nowadays have seemingly become more irritable than ever for a variety of reasons. Add in some refreshment cart Bloody Marys and rum and cokes, and you’ve got a recipe for close-quarter fisticuffs where participants think they’re Jason Bourne subduing an assassin in a cramped hallway when, really, they’re a bunch of panicked hedgehogs trapped in a flying soda bottle.
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