Published: Wed 19 Apr 2023 at 07:41
Leading leisure airline Jet2.com has banned a disruptive passenger for life after his appalling behaviour caused an aircraft to be diverted last week (Thursday 13th April).
Eric Forrest, 55, from Beith, displayed a catalogue of disgraceful behaviour on the Glasgow to Tenerife flight last week, leaving the crew with no choice but to divert to Faro Airport so that police could offload him.
Mr Forrest behaved aggressively onboard, as well as illicitly consuming alcohol that he had purchased in the airport. He also behaved in an intimidating fashion towards crew and other customers onboard, including even children.
After Mr Forrest was offloaded, customers had to disembark the aircraft in Faro so that the aircraft could be cleaned before departing to Tenerife, because of Mr Forrest’s deplorable actions. As well as causing a delay to customers looking forward to their well-deserved holidays in Tenerife, this also meant customers due to travel back to Glasgow from Tenerife had to spend another night in destination due to the late arrival of the aircraft.
Jet2.com and Jet2holidays arranged overnight hotel accommodation and refreshments for these customers, however this obviously caused considerable inconvenience for customers and families on their journey home after their holidays. The customers were flown back to Glasgow on the Friday.
Jet2.com has confirmed that it will vigorously pursue Mr Forrest for the recovery of all costs incurred by this diversion, which is likely to be a five figure sum. These costs include hotel accommodation for all customers and crew in Tenerife, airport charges, fuel costs, and cleaning costs. The airline has also confirmed that it will assist the authorities with any action they wish to take.
Phil Ward, Managing Director of Jet2.com, said: “Mr Forrest’s behaviour was absolutely disgraceful, and we would like to apologise to all of our customers on board and colleagues who have been impacted or affected. As a family friendly airline, we take a zero tolerance approach to such behaviour and we would like to thank the Portuguese authorities for their assistance in offloading Mr Forrest.”
He added: “As we have done before, we will now vigorously pursue Mr Forrest for all the costs that we incurred as a result of this diversion, as well as banning him for life. We have a very busy summer coming, and the safety and well-being of everyone on board our flights is paramount. This event should act as a stark warning to anyone who thinks that it might be acceptable to behave in an unacceptable manner onboard one of our flights. Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of customers enjoy their flights and continue to have a lovely holiday, and we will work hard to provide our VIP Customer service as always.”
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