Ryanair flight: plane heading to Liverpool John Lennon Airport diverts to Faro as ‘disruptive’ passenger ‘removed’

A Ryanair flight travelling to Liverpool John Lennon’s Airport from Tenerife was diverted to Faro in Portugal after a passenger allegedly had to be restrained by a fellow passenger. Flight FR4345 departed the Canary Islands at 8.55pm local time on Sunday (29 October) and was due to arrive at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport at 12.35am.

However, shortly after 10.45pm, the plane landed at Faro Airport instead. A spokesperson for Ryanair told LiverpoolWorld the diversion was “due to a passenger becoming disruptive inflight.” The spokesperson added: “The aircraft landed normally at Faro Airport and the passenger was removed from the aircraft by local authorities before the aircraft continued to Liverpool”.

The plane eventually arrived in Liverpool at around 1.40am. Stuart Brierley told The Liverpool Echo that the disruptive passenger was escorted off the plane leaving his wife and daughter to continue onto Liverpool without him. He added that he had seen the man getting on the plane and “could tell he was absolutely legless” and “about an hour and a half into flight I heard shouting and I looked behind me and a passenger was restraining him, apparently this was because the air steward had refused to serve him alcohol."

It comes after a Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Manchester Airport shortly after take-off on Tuesday 26 September. Flight FR5663 EDI-AGP embarked on its journey from Edinburgh to Malaga but it had to be quickly diverted to Manchester Airport.

The aircraft diverted shortly after it took off from Edinburgh due to a passenger becoming ill on board. Crew called ahead and requested a diversion to Manchester for the medical emergency.