Ryanair tells passenger: leave overbooked flight or face arrest

PA

A passenger on an overbooked Ryanair flight was asked to get off the plane, or be arrested by police.

Janine Handley was seated and ready to fly back to Manchester from a family holiday in Faro, Portugal, when a message came over the PA system asking her to make herself known to staff.

She was then told to leave the flight because there weren't enough seats, but when she refused she was reportedly threatened with police arrest.

The incident went on for more than hour, with other passengers attempting to defend her right to stay on the plane.

Another message was then delivered to the plane, offering 300 euros to any passenger who was willing to disembark. A man agreed and the plane got ready for take-off.

Janine told the Manchester Evening News: 'It was traumatising – I couldn't believe what was going on and felt like I was being bullied, as well as being treated like a criminal.

'I had been on a family holiday but had to return home alone as I needed to be back at work.

'It was the most uncomfortable hour of my life. I was told I was holding the entire plane up and they tried to intimidate me but I refused to give in. I will never fly with Ryanair again – it was very distressing.'

A Ryanair spokesperson told the paper the mix-up came after confusion over one family's booking, and Janine was selected to get off the plane because staff believed she was the last person to board.

The spokesman explained: 'Ryanair has a policy of not overbooking our flights. However this flight was fully booked, with a number of large family groups.

'One family had made a booking specifying that one of the children was an infant.

'However when the passports were checked, it transpired that the infant was over the age of two and therefore was required by law to have its own seat on board.

'Our handling agents, rather than offloading a family group of six people, wrongly attempted to offload Ms Handley, as they believed she was the last to board the aircraft.'

Janine has since received an apology, but said: 'After landing at Manchester Airport I suffered a massive panic attack. It was a horrible experience.'

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