A woman has been arrested on suspicion of "endangering" an aircraft that landed at East Midlands Airport.
It is alleged the 40-year-old was drunk after she boarded the Jet2 flight from Tenerife, which landed at the airport on Sunday, January 28.
She is also suspected of behaving in a threatening manner to the aircraft crew and endangering the Jet2 flight LS634.
Another passenger on the flight praised an off-duty police officer, who was on the flight, as well as the Jet2 staff for handling the situation professionally.
The passenger, who did not want to be named, alleged that the woman started behaving badly about half-an-hour into the flight.
She claimed the woman was told she could not be served any more alcohol and appeared to kick the chair in front of her.
Passengers allegedly had to be moved to get away from the woman as they were becoming distressed by her behaviour.
Then separately, as the plane came to land, high winds forced it to go back up again, which apparently led to passengers screaming.
A Leicestershire Police spokesman said: "Officers from East Midlands Airport were called after a woman was reported as being drunk and disorderly on board a flight from Tenerife at around midnight Sunday into Monday."
She was subsequently arrested on suspicion of:
- Entering an aircraft when drunk
- Endangering an aircraft
- Behaving in a threatening/abusive/insulting/disorderly manner towards a member of aircraft crew
- Allegedly using threatening/abusive/insulting words to a member of aircraft crew
- Allegedly using threatening/abusive words/behaviour or disorderly behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
A spokesman for Jet2 said: "As a family friendly airline we will not tolerate this type of disruptive behaviour on-board our aircraft, which is why we take a zero-tolerance approach through our On-board Together Campaign.
"As well as thanking the police, we would also like to commend our crew for their professionalism in handling this situation, and to apologise to other customers for any inconvenience or distress that this disruptive passenger caused."
A spokesman for East Midlands Airport told our sister title, the Leicester Mercury: "Upon arrival at East Midlands Airport on Sunday January 28, a disruptive passenger was arrested by Leicestershire Police and taken off site."
Leicestershire Police said the woman, who was arrested, has been released under investigation.
