What does everyone make of this?

[Fonty]

I read this story this morning, and I really don't know what to make of it at all.

 

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/wrexham-stag-party-thrown-ryanair-8879092

 

If a party of people were deemed to be so badly behaved at the boarding stage that the police were called, then why were they allowed to board the plane at all?

 

 

The men claim to have only had some food and ‘a pint’ and were not drunk. Or course,they could be making themselves out to be innocent, when in fact they were a drunken mob.  But something doesn’t seem quite right here, if other people on the flight were standing up for them.

 

And details such as the male steward “bursting into tears”, and the Captain emerging and putting his arm around him and comforting him sound downright odd to me.  

 

[Jan McNulty]

If they were drunk and disruptive then they should have been taken off the plane.  However if it is just because it was a largish group of men then that is disgraceful and Ryanair should be taken to task.  How do you prove it one way or the other?

 

It is very easy to misjudge people.  Some years ago on the last working working Friday before Christmas I was waiting for the train home.  I, along with many other people, had been on a doooo and could have been described as tipsy.  A lot of people near me were looking apprehensive because there was a group of about 10 young men who were a bit loud and not very smart.  Needless to say they got on my train but it was them who broke up the fight between 2 very respectable looking middle-aged men!  Who would have predicted that?

[taxi4ballet]

As far as I know, on an aircraft (as on a ship) the captain's word is law, and presumably he decided that the plane would not be taking off if there was any possibility of disruption - however slim - during the flight.

 

I do feel a bit sorry for them all though!

[Fonty]

I have to say that the steward's reaction doesn't fill me with great confidence.  If he is reduced to tears by that situation, how would he cope if there was an emergency on the plane? 

 

I feel sorry for them as well.  I wonder what would have happened if they had refused to leave?  Presumably the police would have had to arrest them all. 

 

But I still question why they were allowed to take their seats in the first place.  Presumably the whole flight was held up, and all the passengers suffer as a result. 

 

Edited to add I am flying Ryanair soon, which is why the article caught my eye.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Fonty

[Regattah]

The bit that I found interesting was the disparity in the police and Ryanair statements. Ryanair made the point of saying that some of the group had to be 'removed by' the police but the police statement seemed to say that they all left peacefully and voluntarily once they got involved. I think spinning might be involved!

[alison]

I'm sure it was. This is the sort of thing which I find tends to feature in the local paper, and you often get a sob story from the aggrieved person, and no real opportunity for the other side to put their side of things, which is frequently quite different. I'm not suggesting that their story is necessarily divorced from reality, but I don't think there's enough independent information to make a decision in favour of either.