Last week a Turkish Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing. An intoxicated passenger bit the finger of one of the flight attendants during the flight. The altercation took place on a route to Jakarta from Istanbul on Wednesday.
Social media footage:
Footage of the altercation can be found on social media. In the video you’ll see a man “throwing punches” at a flight attendant who was holding plastic handcuffs. Passengers watched the melee continue to escalate. Then more flight attendants tried to calm things down. You’ll even see one of the crew members start kicking the rowdy passenger on the plane.
The details:
Pesawat Turkish Airlines rute Istanbul-Jakarta harus dialihkan ke Medan gegara penumpang ngamuk dan serang kru. Pnp tsb akhirnya dihajar pnp lain dan kru sebelum diikat. Blm jelas akar permasalahannya apa sampai ybs menyerang kru pic.twitter.com/KrTrko6mTM
— KabarPenumpang (@kabarpenumpang) October 12, 2022
As reported by Express, the passenger was an Indonesian pilot from another carrier. He was very intoxicated and ended up biting one of the flight attendant’s fingers. At first, the crew members asked him to calm down. Instead, the “ask” must have triggered him as he decides to chomp down on the crew member’s finger instead. Eventually, the plane was forced to land in Kuala Lumpur instead of Jakarta.
In a statement from Turkish Airlines, they stated the employee’s behavior was in no way a representation of the company’s core values.