Celtic fan punches police officers on flight after ‘downing bottle of vodka’
A drunk Celtic fan punched police officers and passengers on an easyJet flight after ‘downing a bottle of vodka’.
Video footage taken onboard the plane shows a man wearing a Celtic football top angrily lunging at others on the flight from Edinburgh to Antalya, Turkey on Saturday.
It’s thought a fight broke out towards the end of the flight after another Celtic supporter called the man a ‘disgrace’ because of his drunken behaviour, reports the MailOnline.
According to one passenger, the man had been been drinking a bottle of Gold Ivy vodka, which was eventually confiscated by staff.
In the video, the man can be seen standing and leaning over the seat in front of him to try and punch a passenger, before moving toward the aisle to hit another person, who appears to be a Turkish police officer.
Several people, including staff, try to restrain him and at least one person can be heard screaming.
Other passengers, including children, watch what’s happening, with some filming the furore.
Some parents try to reassure their children, saying ‘it’s alright, it’s OK’.
One passenger said: ‘Before he punched the officer he had been drinking and finishing a bottle of vodka that he had sneaked onto the plane and trying to speak to girls at the back of the plane by the toilets and just being really drunk.’
He said an air steward tried to take the vodka bottle away from him, but the man told her he needed it for ‘protection’.
‘At the end of the flight he was constantly shouting and bringing his bag out from the overhead bit and staff were telling him to sit down. Then another Celtic fan said he was a disgrace.’
He then tried to fight the other fan, the passenger explained, while his partner attempted to hold him down.
‘Then police came onboard [after landing] and he tried to throw punches at them,’ he added.
The man was taken off the plane by police and security staff, at which point several passengers cheered, added the holidaymaker.
The passenger said his 12-year-old son was ‘stressed’ during the fight and several other children could be heard crying.
As there were a number of empty seats towards the back of the plane, some families moved to get away from the Celtic fan.
An easyJet spokesperson told Metro.co.uk: ‘easyJet can confirm that police attended a flight to Antalya on April 20 on arrival due to a passenger behaving disruptively on board.
‘easyJet’s crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of passengers is not compromised at any time.
‘Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour.
‘The safety and wellbeing of all our customers and crew is always our highest priority.’
In September last year Spanish police stormed an easyJet flight travelling from Manchester to the Canary Islands due to ‘eight violent passengers’ on board.
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