Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Daily Mail

A British holiday plane was diverted to France after a couple became embroiled in a “drunken” air-rage fight at 35,000ft over the Mediterranean.

Eyewitnesses said the woman passenger “took a bite out of the face” of her boyfriend or husband.

Two off-duty police officers intervened to assist the mainly female crew in restraining the fighting couple after the captain ordered that both the man and the woman - believed to be in their late twenties - were handcuffed

The mid-air drama happened aboard a busy Thomas Cook Airlines flight with 233 seats flying to Manchester from the airport serving the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

As the fight broke out high over the Med, the pilot diverted the Boeing 757 aircraft to Lyon Airport in France where the pair were arrested by French police and held in custody.

One eyewitness said: “A couple who had too much to drink had a real set-to. They were in their late 20s. She bit him on the face and took a chunk out of his cheek. The crew tried to restrain them but they were mainly female.

“Two off-duty police officers joined in to help when they saw what was happening.

“The Captain ordered both the man and the woman to be restrained but it looked like there was only one restraint. The plane diverted to Lyon where they were arrested and detained by the local gendarmes.”

A spokesman for the airline said: “Thomas Cook Airlines can confirm that flight TCX 573L from Hurghada in Egypt to Manchester was diverted to Lyons to off-load two passengers.

“The aircraft was met by the local police and the passengers were arrested. As this is now a police matter, we are unable to comment further.

“We operate a zero tolerance policy to disruptive or violent passenger behaviour on our flights and will not tolerate any actions which may affect passenger health, safety and well being.”

Air rage on passenger planes has soared by 62 per cent over the last 12 months - and quadrupled over the last five years, official figures show.

Violence and drunkenness by rowdy passengers and those refusing to obey no-smoking rules have fuelled the rise.

Alcohol was a “contributory factor” in 746 incidents or more than a third of cases (34 per cent).

Some 29 per cent of such cases involved passengers drinking their own alcohol, 17 per cent involved them drinking alcohol supplied by the airline, and 23 per cent was down to passengers drinking before boarding.

The most serious offences carry a maximum fine of £5,000 and/or two years imprisonment. The remaining offences relating to unruly behaviour on board aircraft carry fines of up to £2,500.

Latest figures for the year 2006-07 show that the total number of reported incidents of disruptive passenger behaviour rose from 1, 359 to 2,219 - an increase of 62 per cent. Of the total, some 2,161 were classified as “significant” and 58 as “serious”.

Passengers were removed from their planes in 235 reported incidents. Males in their 30s are the main offenders, but many involve large groups.

Some 42 passengers were physically restrained - 21 with hand-cuffs and 21 with other forms of restraint.

Some 14 aircraft were diverted and 19 had to abort their taxi or take-off and return to their stand because of the disruption.

Violence was involved in 172 incidents - or 8 per cent of the total. Violence towards crew happened in 58 cases.

Under UK law, there are two main pieces of legislation relating to disruptive behaviour and under which offenders can be prosecute. - the Air Navigation Order 2005 and the Aviation Offences Act 2003.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s Annual Statistics on Disruptive Passenger Behaviour on-board aircraft for the year 2006-07 conclude that “the main contributory factors to disruptive behaviour were alcohol and tobacco”.

Since 2002 the total number of reported incidents has nearly quadrupled from 648 to 2,219. The number of serious incidents has nearly doubled from 35 to 58 over the same five year period.

Offences in relation to disruptive behaviour on board aircraft include: endangering the safety of an aircraft; being drunk in an aircraft; smoking when prohibited; disobeying a lawful command by the commander of an aircraft; acting in a disruptive manner (including interfering with cabin crew in the course of their duty