A group of tourists travelling to Malta from Dublin for this year’s edition of Lost & Found festival were arrested upon arrival after a fight broke out on their plane.

Irish journalist Kieran Dineen, who was aboard the flight, described the scenes aboard the Ryanair flight.

“There was a lot of young people, many of them were quite inebriated,” he said. “It wasn’t until I was on the plane that I realised it wasn’t just young people going to Malta for a holiday away, but out of 180, 150 were going to a dance festival.

“Several fights broke out. There was one man pinned to the ground by two other men to keep him under control, there were punches thrown.”

“One man was held up against the window by his neck for a long duration of the flight. There was quite a number who were unruly, and it was quite scary for other passengers.”

“When we got up in the air, the real messing started when large groups congregated beside both bathrooms where the drink carts were.”

In a statement, Ryanair said the unruly passengers were arrested by the Maltese police upon arrival.

“We requested police assistance upon arrival after several passengers became disruptive in-flight,” the airline said. “The aircraft landed normally and police removed and detained these individuals.”

“We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. This is now a matter for local police.”

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]