Group of passengers taken off ACE-CRL flight by Ryanair

[eu01]

I think Ryanair will be a subject of quite a few conversations in Belgium after this incident:

100 Passengers Offloaded from Lanzarote - Charleroi flight

Ryanair today (5th Feb) confirmed that it had offloaded a group of 100 passengers travelling from Lanzarote to Brussels Charleroi on FR8175 at the request of Spanish Police. This group became disruptive, and refused to comply with crew instructions after a number of their group were required to pay a gate bag fee for outsized luggage.

Lanzarote police required the entire aircraft be offloaded, each passenger identified. Following further disruptive behaviour, the police required for security reasons that this enitre group be refused travel.

Ryanair apologises sincerely to the 66 remaining passengers who suffered a 3hr delay while Ryanair and the local police were dealing with this disruptive group. Ryanair's handling agent in Lanzarote will be reaccommodating some of this group on later flights to Charleroi but any individuals who engaged in disruptive behaviour or refused to follow crew instructions will not be allowed to fly.

The safety and security of Ryanair's passengers, crew and aircraft will remain Ryanair's number 1 priority.

Source: Ryanair

[airazurxtror]

According to the RTL-TVI news, they were students from ULB and Saint-Louis universities; one (or more) of them had not printed their boarding pass and refused to pay the fee to have it issued at the airport.

[regi]

According to the RTL-TVI news, they were students from ULB and Saint-Louis universities; one (or more) of them had not printed their boarding pass and refused to pay the fee to have it issued at the airport.

if that is the reason, bad points for Ryanair because they were convicted by a Spanish court that they cannot charge money if the boarding pass has not been printed by the customer. Lanzarotte is Spanish territory. If the African emigrants know this , it should be known by the legal team of Ryanair as well.
Wonder what will happen to the stewardess who over reacted. ( she probably followed instructions from above to neglect Spanish legislation ) Very easy to blame here, fire her and continue business as usual.

[airazurxtror]

Ryanair has not been convicted by that one judge, far from it :

The judge said that her ruling was not firm and could not oblige Ryanair to stop applying the clause and she expected the case to be taken to the European Court of Justice. She said Spanish passengers now had a first judicial ruling to back their demands for the return of the penalty for not printing the pass..

It's only the beginning of a long story before the courts, if somebody cares (and pays) fot the procedure to go on. And Ryanair is not sure to be the loser, far from it.
Let's not forget that the customer is requested to agree to this before having his booking confirmed :

I have read and accept Ryanair's General Terms and Conditions of Carriage of Travel and Website Terms of Use.

If he does not agree, he does not fly with Ryanair. If he does agree, he is bound by it.

Let's imagine that Ryanair is convicted and can no longer impose a 40 euros fee to issue a boarding pass at the airport. Ryanair has already made clear that, in that case, no boarding pass will be issued at the airport any more, and the passenger who has not printed it himself will not board the flight. End of the dispute.

[regi]

By the way, for those who missed this one, even KLM acts strangely:
they removed members of an African tribe from the airplane because other passengers complained about the bad smell of the native Africans.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/prive/8938038/_ ... tml?p=37,2

This sounds almost as racism to me. But...I remember a BA flight Mumbai-London with some seats further a western guy who had been living too long on the edge in India. He smelt terrible, he wore dirty clothes and had the look of somebody who was kicked out of a drug rehabilitation program . Just after departure, the stewardess tried to move as many passengers from around this person.

[airazurxtror]

Another version of what happened at Lanzarote :

http://www.thereader.es/en/spain-news-s ... light.html


The incident occurred shortly before 10.30 am, when a Ryanair plane was preparing to fly to Charleroi (Brussels), A passenger was was asked to leave the plane after pushing over a crew member. When he refused to disembark, his friends intervened and faced off against other staff members. Some other passengers got involved on behalf of the crew members, starting a fight onboard the aircraft.
Consequently, the Captain requested the intervention of the Security Forces of the State, which ended the incident by arresting twenty passengers. The plane later took for Brussels with the rest of the passagengers.

According to sources, the passengers were evacuated from the aircraft by members of the Guardia Civil and National Police and are still in the airport terminal Guacimeta, where they are protesting their innocence in the events. Police confirmed that they are likely to face charges of assault.

[sean1982]

hmm, If that is the case, I agree that they were offloaded.

This is also a reaction from a pax on board:
Ik was vandaag wel passagier op de vlucht van Lanzarote naar Brussel. Voor alle duidelijkheid, er valt NIEMAND van RYANAIR iets te verwijten. 90% van de groep studenten waren ok. Alleen was het voor onze vrienden nieuwe belgen heel frustrerend om eens te ondervinden dat de regels voor iedereen gelden. Te laat komen, stewardessen uitschelden. Ik zag Aziatische, Afrikaans en Zuid Amerikaanse studenten. De problemen deden zich voor met een kleine groep Noord Afrikanen. Laat hen betalen voor alles

[Air Key West]

I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned the incident in Lanzarote, Spain, where a group of passengers were forcefully disembarked by Ryanair.
Apparently, there was a row between a young passenger and a female flight attendant concerning luggage and the refusal to pay for extra luggage. Don't you have to pay for extra luggage on the ground before getting your boarding pass or does FR have different practices, including charging for luggage also on board ? I did not quite get what the argument was about. Not only was the one young passenger involved taken off the plane, but a fairly large group of pax were forced to disembark,too. Has anyone some insider info ? (see below, sorry did not find anything in English).
http://www.lalibre.be/actu/internationa ... anair.html
http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nl-NL/Ar ... _vervoeren

[Air Key West]

Thanks and sorry. I had not read the thread on CRL latest news 2011. However, I am not sure I understood what really happened after reading Sean's "report". Who did not behave properly ? The young Belgians ? The North Africans passengers ?
(it's ok with me if the webwaster deletes this new thread or moves it to CRL Latest News).

[regi]

Ryanair has not been convicted by that one judge, far from it

A conviction is a conviction:
Ryanair’s policy of fining passengers who fail to print their boarding passes in advance has been ruled illegal in Spain.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1DCSJlBBD
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -free.html
And to tell you how the legal team of Ryanair sees it, they agree with me it is a conviction, or a ruling , something to be followed. They will appeal, which is their right. But in the mean time, there is this conviction.
Ryanair robustly dismissed criticism of the charge and said it would appeal the ruling. "The court is wrong," a spokesman for the airline said.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing11.html

[regi]

seems that Ryanair has problems with Lanzarote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... storm.html

[airazurxtror]

Ryanair’s policy of fining passengers who fail to print their boarding passes in advance has been ruled illegal in Spain.

And then what ?
Has Ryanair ceased applying that 40 euros fee in Spain and thus ceased to deliver any boarding pass at the Spanish airports ?
I don't know, but I would be interested to have the answer from somebody who knows.

[airazurxtror]

seems that Ryanair has problems with Lanzarote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... storm.html

That was nearly one year ago ...

[earthman]

By the way, for those who missed this one, even KLM acts strangely:
they removed members of an African tribe from the airplane because other passengers complained about the bad smell of the native Africans.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/prive/8938038/_ ... tml?p=37,2

This sounds almost as racism to me. But...I remember a BA flight Mumbai-London with some seats further a western guy who had been living too long on the edge in India. He smelt terrible, he wore dirty clothes and had the look of somebody who was kicked out of a drug rehabilitation program . Just after departure, the stewardess tried to move as many passengers from around this person.

You left out the most important part, how this tribe had royally applied their traditional self-made butter perfume. By the way this was some tribe that took part in some TV show where they send a bunch of spoiled people to live with some tribe in Africa. Then later in return they showed the tribe around in Holland.

Ryanair would offer the other passengers noseplugs for 5 euro and air freshener for 10 euro. KLM told them they could fly the next day, but only if they took a nice long bath and did not apply the offending perfume.

But this is hardly related to CRL.

[regi]

hmm, If that is the case, I agree that they were offloaded.

This is also a reaction from a pax on board:
Ik was vandaag wel passagier op de vlucht van Lanzarote naar Brussel. Voor alle duidelijkheid, er valt NIEMAND van RYANAIR iets te verwijten. 90% van de groep studenten waren ok. Alleen was het voor onze vrienden nieuwe belgen heel frustrerend om eens te ondervinden dat de regels voor iedereen gelden. Te laat komen, stewardessen uitschelden. Ik zag Aziatische, Afrikaans en Zuid Amerikaanse studenten. De problemen deden zich voor met een kleine groep Noord Afrikanen. Laat hen betalen voor alles

Seems that Sean has a point here...
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail ... =G8E362S94
Ryanair has blacklisted 20 passengers - and the article confirmed several messages of other passengers who pointed to misbehaving passengers of non-european decent.
This is a very sensitive item and we as members and posters have to be very carefull about any legal issues regarding racism / discrimination.
If the moderator feels he has to remove my posting, I understand.

[sean1982]

I think it's just a case of don't shoot the messenger. We are not pointing fingers at a nationality or race. Just looking at the facts.

[regi]

I think it's just a case of don't shoot the messenger. We are not pointing fingers at a nationality or race. Just looking at the facts.

Right Sean, but sometimes facts can not be told. And sometimes messengers are shot. I would not like that "Luchtzak" could be blamed for something, now that "Luchtzak" has become more than just another website. It has appeared in the media already as a source in other cases "according to Luchtzak..."

[sean1982]

That's a fact

[sn26567]

RYANAIR DELIVERS ONLINE LESSON TO BELGIAN STUDENTS

PACKING GUIDE SHOULD BE ADDED TO UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM


FURTHER GUIDES SUCH AS ‘HOW TO RESPECT HOTEL RULES’ REQUIRED

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (10th Feb) delivered an online tutorial in packing light and called on Belgian universities to add it to their curriculum following the unacceptable and unsafe behaviour of over 100 Belgian students last Saturday in Lanzarote. Ryanair released the YouTube guide to packing, to allow these students avoid embarrassing themselves, and Belgium, further with their refusals to comply with the airline’s policies and instructions, as they agreed to do at the time of booking.

The YouTube tutorial demonstrates how passengers can pack enough clothes for a two week holiday into one 10 kg carry-on bag. Ryanair called on Belgian universities to introduce tutorials on ‘safety when abroad’, ‘the importance of following safety instructions’ (without spitting at or threatening people) and ‘how to respect hotel rules’ following media reports that these students damaged hotel accommodation while on the Island (see links below).

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“Ryanair is today calling on Belgian universities to ensure no further embarrassing international episodes when their students travel abroad by providing them with an online tutorial in how to pack light. This tutorial will allow these students to comply with the airline policies they accept when booking a flight.

While this tutorial will avoid any unpleasant situations for students, airlines and fellow passengers, these universities should also address the media reports that their students damaged hotel accommodation and were a general menace to other holiday makers, by developing further tutorials such as ‘how to respect hotel rules’.

Thankfully the unacceptable actions by this small group of students are not indicative of the behaviour of the many millions of university students from Belgium and elsewhere that travel with Ryanair every year.”

Example of media reports detailing hotel damage and student behaviour:

http://www.laprovincia.es/lanzarote/201 ... 51906.html

http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique ... 820547.php

To translate use copy text into Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/

Ryanair press release 10.02.2011

[earthman]

A bag packed that tightly is not allowed on board aircraft, as it is an explosive device.