A Ryanair plane bound for Dublin had to turn back to Porto following a bizarre incident involving a passenger who claimed she was being followed by three people.
The 48-year-old woman is said to have handed a flight attendant some ‘sheets of paper’ revealing her claim and asked him to hand them over to the pilot.
The unnamed Brazilian was removed from the Boeing 737 after it landed at its take-off destination and was identified by local authorities.
Ryanair flight 7073 left Porto Airport again just before 1.30am yesterday and reached the Irish capital two-and-a-half hours late at around 3.15am local time.
A spokesperson for Ryanair told : ‘This flight from Porto to Dublin (22 Sep) returned to Porto shortly after take-off due to a false security report, which was quickly resolved before the flight continued to Dublin following a 2hr 33mins delay.’
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Portuguese paper Correio da Manha said the woman at the centre of the surreal episode returned to the plane after being identified by the authorities ‘without police verifying her allegations.’
But other Portuguese press, which reported the female passenger had forced the plane to return to Porto after displaying ‘disorderly behaviour’, said she was escorted out of the airport by cops.
And they claimed the pilot had to send a squawk code used to discreetly signal unlawful interference such as a hijacking or a cockpit intrusion to air traffic control ahead of its unscheduled turn-around.
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