Ryanair has since spoken out on the incident
A couple who’d just been on holiday to Tenerife and were returning to the UK ended up. Couple escorted off their Ryanair flight by police after they ordered Pringles and some drinks for the return trip.
Ann-Marie Murray, 55, and her partner had been making the journey from Tenerife to Bristol on 28 March when they ordered the in-flight snacks to have a picnic on the plane.
However, when the time came to pay the £7 cost of the food and drink the card the couple tried to use wouldn’t work and they’d spent all of the cash they had on them on the holiday.
The woman, a retirement living assistant, said she offered to go and find a cash machine in the airport once the plane had landed in Bristol so she could pay, but said that the flight attendants refused this offer.
The couple say their boarding passes were confiscated by the crew, who claimed the couple were refusing to pay for the snacks and informed them that the police would be collecting them once the flight touched down at Bristol Airport.
The couple said that even with other passengers coming to their defence over the matter they were still escorted off the plane.
“It was really embarrassing – they stopped everyone getting off the plane and we had to be escorted off,” the 55-year-old holidaymaker said.
“I think they thought we had another card or cash, but I emptied my bag and showed them I had nothing else. It was £7 – we ordered a Coke, a bottle of water and some Pringles.
“So the flight attendant then said she’d pay for it and we’d give her the cash – but we had used all our Euros up. Then another girl came back, and she tried the machines again, and they still didn’t work.
“I suggested that when we land, I’d be happy to withdraw the cash from the airport and pay. But they took our boarding passes, and I asked why, and she said we’ve done something wrong – refusing to pay.
“Other passengers stuck up for us and said we can’t pay, it’s your machines not working but she doubled down and said we were refusing and being rude.”
She said that as one of the crew went to find another card machine ‘the other flight attendant turned round and said this had happened before with these cards’.
Ann-Marie said that she’d seen this happen ‘to other people on flights we’ve been on before’.
As if being escorted off the plane by police wasn’t enough, the couple later found that the front bumper of their car had been smashed while it had been sitting in the car park at Bristol Airport, meaning their car had to be towed away to be fixed while they had to taxi home.
All in all it sounds like it wasn’t the best end to a holiday.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “The crew of this flight from Tenerife to Bristol (28 March) called ahead for police assistance after a passenger became disruptive onboard.
“During this flight, this passenger attempted to purchase food onboard, however the card did not process payment.
“As crew looked to resolve the payment issue, this passenger proceeded to ignore crew instructions, consume the items prior to payment and subsequently became disruptive.
“The aircraft was met by local police upon arrival at Bristol Airport and this passenger was removed.