Police met an EasyJet flight in Portugal on Saturday after a drunk passenger allegedly shouted racist remarks to passengers and assaulted crew members.
According to The Mirror, witnesses said the passenger involved appeared to be intoxicated when boarding the weekend flight from Manchester, England to Marrakesh, Morocco and then continued drinking throughout the flight.
The man's behavior prompted the flight crew to divert to Lisbon, Portugal, where police officers escorted him off the plane.
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"I have never seen anything like this. This passenger appeared to be legless before he boarded the plane and he was given a drink by other passengers consuming their own alcohol," an unidentified passenger told The Mirror. "The cabin crew said he was being racist to other passengers too. It was all happening at the front of the plane but we were sitting at the back near to where cabin crew was discussing it."
"The whole experience was awful. The amount of noise coming from the drunken people felt like we were going to Ibiza or somewhere like that-not what you'd expect on a pane to Marrakesh."
Another passenger, who posted a video from the scene, criticized EasyJet for letting the man board the flight in the first place.
The flight was delayed overnight and the roughly 200 passengers were bussed to hotels, one of which was as far as an hour from the airport, according to a passenger.
"Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously, do not tolerate abusive or threatening behavior on board and always push for prosecution. The safety and well-being of passengers and crew is always easyJet's priority," a spokeswoman for the airline said in a statement to The Mirror.
"Unfortunately easyJet had to delay the flight overnight. All affected passengers were communicated with regularly and every effort was made to minimize the impact of the delay."
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EasyJet also apologized and thanked passengers, adding that it provided hotel accommodations and refreshment vouchers during the delay.
The incident also affected the return flight from Marrakesh.
Saturday's incident comes amid efforts from Irish budget carrier Ryanair to crack down on excessive alcohol consumption at U.K. airports in wake of a slew of mid-flight incidents involving belligerent passengers.
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