London -
Pilots were forced to divert a plane after a drunk passenger threw her prosthetic leg at members of the cabin crew.
After her demands for “cigarettes and a parachute” were denied by stewards, the 48-year-old took off the false limb and hurled it at them in a fit of rage.
The crew managed to restrain her, but Thomson Flight 297 from Enfidha, Tunisia, to Edinburgh had to be diverted to Gatwick, where it made an emergency landing.
Police escorted the jobless troublemaker from the plane and arrested her on suspicion of using threatening behaviour - as relieved passengers broke into a rendition of the Hokey Cokey.
A police spokesman said: “She was swearing blue murder, saying she was going to do this and that... so the flight was diverted.”
On Thursday passenger John Smith, 48, said: “She was off her face on drink.
“She was shouting, ‘I want cigarettes’ and that she wanted a parachute to jump off the plane. She slapped a young girl and then assaulted the cabin crew with her prosthetic leg.
“They took it off her, but she started kicking them with her good leg. It sounds funny, but it was not a laughing matter at the time... We had to sit on the runway for about an hour while the police took statements. She was totally drunk. It was pretty shocking.”
Smith, a labourer from Falkirk, said some passengers were “extremely upset” by the incident, adding: “A woman who was in the same hotel as her told me that she had kicked off on the bus transfer from hotel to airport. The bus driver even threatened to put her off the bus.”
The flight had been due to arrive in Edinburgh at around 11.30pm on Wednesday but did not arrive until 2.30am on Thursday.
A Thomson Airways spokesman apologised for the diversion - a “last resort” by the plane’s captain - and said it had a “zero tolerance” policy to disruptive behaviour on flights. - Daily Mail