A woman was involved in beating scenes in the middle of a flight connecting London (Gatwick) to Madeira, and forced the plane to divert to Lisbon. Passengers, including Madeirans and many emigrants, are held in the plane at Humberto Delgado Airport.
The report to JM is made by a 20-year-old Portuguese passenger, who travels with his family and a four-month-old son, from London to Madeira, and who is now stranded on the plane, in Lisbon, without information. The flight left Gatwick at 5:25 pm and arrived at RAM at 9:25 pm, but an hour before landing in Funchal, it went to Lisbon, where the police ended up detaining the passenger who caused the riots on board. The incident may have started because of the drunken state of the passenger of African origin, who was at odds with the crew and some passengers, threatening the safety of the flight to Madeira.
“We were diverted to Lisbon, for reasons of a drunk passenger, who began to attack the other passengers”, he revealed to JM. So far, he notes, “nothing is known. There is no information on the crew, and the drunk passenger assaulted the crew as well.”
With police on board, “we were informed that the flight will be scheduled to leave Lisbon at 00:30, when supposedly the scheduled arrival in Madeira was at 21:25.
The captain ended up diverting the plane to Lisbon, where it landed a few minutes ago, leaving the passengers inside the plane. Shortly after landing, the plane was surrounded by police and SEF vehicles, which took over the operation to arrest the drunk passenger.
This passenger reveals to JM that he lacks a lot of information and will have more expenses to make until Sunday, the day he is scheduled to return to London. He’s already missed almost a day of vacation.