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After the aircraft landed at Tenerife South Airport, police arrived on the tarmac. A spokesperson for the Civil Guard said all those involved were British nationals.
This photograph shows an EasyJet Airbus A320 aircraft landing at Orly airport on April 6, 2026. (AFP)
An easyJet flight carrying 186 passengers was forced to turn back to the Canary Islands after a fight broke out onboard at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
The incident took place on Tuesday evening, around 30 minutes after the flight departed. A dispute between two groups of British passengers escalated into a physical altercation, prompting the captain to abort the journey to Liverpool and return the aircraft to Tenerife.
“A group of about 10 passengers had started a fight on board, and the captain decided to return due to the danger it posed to the safety of the flight,” an air traffic controller said.
easyJet, in a statement, said the flight returned “due to a group of passengers behaving disruptively.”
After the aircraft landed at Tenerife South Airport, police arrived on the tarmac. A spokesperson for the Civil Guard said all those involved were British nationals.
“Eight people were removed from the plane who had been travelling together, two adults and six minors,” the spokesperson said, according to Wales Online. “[It appears] a heated discussion started in the airport terminal between two families before they boarded the plane, and those problems obviously continued on the plane, which is why it turned back.”
The remaining passengers later resumed their journey to Liverpool on the same day.
The incident comes as UK officials are considering stricter measures to deal with disruptive passengers. Officials from the Department for Transport and the Home Office are reportedly working on a proposal that could allow airlines to share details of unruly travellers and prevent them from flying with other carriers.
Under the proposed system, airlines would report disruptive passengers to the government, and participating carriers would be alerted if a flagged individual attempts to book another flight. Airlines could then deny boarding.
At present, passengers banned by one airline can travel with another carrier as data protection rules restrict the sharing of blacklist information.
A survey of more than 5,000 British adults conducted in April found that three-quarters of respondents supported the creation of a centralised database to ban disruptive passengers from all flights.
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