A Ryanair flight from Milan to London was diverted after a passenger reportedly ‘ate his passport’ and another attempted to flush one down the toilet.
15 minutes after takeoff, one man began ripping pages out of his passport and eating them, disturbed witnesses say.
Soon after, another man rushed to the washroom in an attempt to flush his passport down the toilet and was caught doing so.
Reportedly, these actions caused other passengers “to freak out” because of a blunt announcement made overhead by a flight attendant about what was happening.
Flight attendants, banging on the WC door, attempted to stop the man from flushing his passport, witnesses say.
Out of a fear that the two would become aggressive, the fight was diverted to Paris, where the two men were immediately arrested by French Police.
The plan then continued to London, arriving several hours late.
Ryanair has not comment on the incident, but this is a common occurrence among people who do it in order to become undocumented. They believe it will raise their chances of remaining in the country they’re meant to land in, as their country of origin won’t take them back without identification, but also because, at the same time, treaties prevent people from being stateless. Thus they are able to buy time in the destination country. Border guards at major European airports report that some who make these asylum claims even pretend to be a different nationality in order to end up in a more favourable place, or simply refuse to provide their details once landed.
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