Man banned from Jet2 'for life' after 'disgraceful' behaviour causes Glasgow flight to divert to Bulgaria

A flight bound for Turkey was forced to divert to another country after a drunk passenger from Glasgow had to be restrained onboard due to his “disgraceful behaviour”.

The Jet2 flight originally departed from Glasgow for Dalaman on Tuesday, May 2, but diverted to Bulgaria’s Sofia airport where it was held for two hours before taking off again.

Identified by the airline as a 29-year-old man from Govan, the passenger’s behaviour included “illicit consumption of alcohol, physical and verbal aggression” – which resulted in him being restrained by onboard staff.

He was met by Bulgarian authorities from the flight and was given a “lifetime ban” from travelling with the airline.

Jet2 managing director Phil Ward apologised to all passengers and employees affected by the incident and confirmed the airline would be pursuing compensation from the passenger.

He said: “The passenger behaved in a disgraceful fashion, causing unnecessary distress to others onboard.

“As a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to this behaviour, and we would like to apologise to other customers and our colleagues for any upset caused.

“Our highly-trained crew, along with a number of other customers, acted to restrain the passenger and we would like to sincerely thank them for their actions, however this simply should not be happening.

“The passenger has been banned from flying with Jet2.com for life and we will vigorously pursue him for all the costs that we incurred as a result of this diversion.

“Thankfully, the vast majority of customers enjoy their flights and have a lovely holiday, and we will continue to work hard to provide our VIP Customer service for them as always.

“Unfortunately a tiny minority act in an appalling fashion and our message to them is clear – there are serious consequences to disruptive passenger behaviour and we will not hesitate to take action to stamp it out.”