Passengers on a Thomson flight from Manchester to Heraklion on Crete, say that a group of teenagers – many vacationing for the first time without their parents – disrupted an entire flight after a drinking spree with alcohol sneaked aboard in Sprite soft drink bottles. The situation on the plane was so intense that Flight TOM 2570 had to be diverted to Bulgaria. The pilot was concerned for the safety of the crew and passengers as drunken brawls on the plane carrying 180 people raised alarm.

Once in Sofia, police raided the plane and arrested the troublemakers. Despite their initial relief, passengers were then forced to wait for almost two hours before taking off again. “There were groups of young lads and their girlfriends in their teens and early twenties and it looked as though they were on their first holidays without mums and dads,” says the passenger. “They had sneaked vodka on board in Sprite bottles and were drinking it throughout the flight. There was one bloke who just got completely out of hand. He was just drunk and abusive and shouting at everyone. The behavior was disgusting. There was shouting and swearing to start with but it then got worse and became very scary.”

A Thomson spokeswoman said:

“Thomson Airways would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced by passengers on board flight TOM2570 from Manchester to Heraklion, which diverted to Bulgaria yesterday due to a customer incident on board.
We operate a zero tolerance policy in relation to any disruptive behaviour.
The passenger in question was removed from the aircraft and met by police.
The flight departed within two hours to ensure the other customers could get away on their holiday as soon as possible.
Customer safety is our priority at all times and we would like to reassure passengers that incidents of this nature are extremely rare.”