Passengers on a flight from Belgium to Spain may have (fortunately) missed the most memorable flight of their lives on Saturday after the captain decided that he wouldn’t take off with 41 unruly foreigners on board, some whom were intoxicated.
Brussels Airlines flight SN3771 was supposed to take 136 passengers from the Belgian capital to Alicante in Spain, but while taxiing along the runway at Brussels Airport, some of the passengers began misbehaving and would not calm down at the captain’s request, according to the local media.
“The captain decided during the taxiing phase at Brussels Airport to return to the gate as, due to the unruly behavior of these passengers, the comfort on board and the safety were not guaranteed,” said Geert Sciot, a spokesman for Brussels Airlines, as cited by Belgian aviation news site Luchtzak.
The captain returned the Airbus A319 to the gate, after which 41 passengers were offloaded and taken into custody by airport police.
The company said it had to unload the ousted people’s luggage as well, resulting in a departure delay of two hours and 45 minutes. It also had to call in a new crew to avoid overtiming and revise the flight number to SN3771A.
The airline said none of the troublemakers were Belgians, but would not disclose their nationalities.
No charges have been pressed due to the incident, according to local media.