The Lufthansa Airbus A380 diverted to New Delhi, requesting to deplane an unruly passenger.
The Lufthansa Airbus A380 diverted to New Delhi, requesting to deplane an unruly passenger.
Passengers aboard a Lufthansa A380 described a “creepy” incident between an unruly passenger and his wife that had the plane diverted to another country.
On Tuesday night, flight LE772 from Munich to Bangkok put in a request for an emergency landing at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International – claiming a situation involving a “possible unruly passenger”.
According to passengers on board, the flight was diverted after a dispute between a couple turned nasty.
The husband, a 53-year-old German national, was first brought to the attention of the Lufthansa aircrew by his Thai wife, who the Telegraph India claimed had been “threatened” by her partner.
The couple were seated in economy class on the nine-year-old jumbo that had departed late for Thailand and were visibly irate on the 11-hour flight. An argument, brewing between the two eventually erupted into a violent outburst from the male passenger.
One traveller told German newspaper Bild they heard him shout “I will kill you all” across the cabin. After ignoring the crew’s calls for calm and to stop shouting at his wife he turned his attention to other passengers, throwing food.
He reportedly had to be stopped trying to set fire to a blanket with a lighter.
The plane’s request to land and deplane the unruly husband was accepted by New Delhi airport, where it made an unscheduled landing at 10.26pm, local time.
Having briefly stopped the riotous passenger the cabin crew tried to keep the divert a secret from the unruly traveller.
“It was creepy,” a passenger told Bild.
“The crew turned off all the TV sets so that the couple wouldn’t know they were being diverted to New Delhi, not Bangkok. There were no announcements but the crew told a few passengers we would be flying to India.”
LH772 was granted permission to divert to New Delhi, India to remove the unruly passenger. Photo / Flight Radar 24
Once on the ground six armed police officers of the Indian CISF were called to intervene.
“All passengers had to remain seated and there was now a loudspeaker announcement that it was forbidden to make films or take photographs,” said the traveller.
The flight was eventually cleared again for departure, minus the husband, just after midnight after which it arrived in Bangkok, two and a half hours delayed.
The German consulate had been contacted regarding the unruly passenger. The wife is reported to have remained on the delayed service to Bangkok.
“The person in question was handed over to authorities. The flight to Bangkok is expected to continue subsequently with minor delays. Safety and security on board for our passengers and crew is our top priority,” said a statement from the carrier seen by the Telegraph.
The embassy had not said if the unruly passenger would be detained by Delhi Police to face charges or if he would be deported on the next plane back to Germany.
