Pair held after bid to open doors of aircraft

Published on Saturday 26 July 2008 23:43

A HOLIDAY flight was forced to make an emergency landing when two women tried to open the cabin door mid-flight at 30,000ft.

The women were drinking on board a flight to Manchester from Kos in Greece on Friday when they became rowdy.

The plane made an emergency landing at Frankfurt Airport in Germany and the women were held in their seats by security staff until their arrest, a police spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for XL Airways said the women were thought to be smoking in the plane toilet and were suspected of bringing their own alcohol on to the plane.

After staff refused to sell them more drink, they started threatening them and swearing at them, she said.

The pair then said they wanted to open the door at 30,000 feet to get "some fresh air" into the plane.

"We had two disruptive passengers and we suspected one of them of smoking in the toilet, and we also suspected that they were drinking their own alcohol," she said.

"We refused to serve them any alcohol from the bar and things escalated. Their language was totally unacceptable, as was their behaviour. They were very abusive and threatening."

She added: "We won't tolerate this sort of behaviour. The cabin crew did an excellent job and were very professional."

The flight, XLA 237, had 214 passengers on board. It departed Kos at 2.45pm before making the unscheduled stop at Frankfurt.

The Boeing 737 900 plane completed its journey in Manchester, arriving at 6.25pm.

The spokeswoman said the airline was considering taking legal action against the passengers.