The passengers were engaged ins “a wild mid-air brawl”, reported the Daily Mail, citing Balinese authorities saying the passengers were drunk and fighting on the flight. (See story here.)
Flight JQ27 from Sydney to Phuket was forced to divert last night (July 20) night to Bali.
“During a flight from Sydney to Phuket last night a group of six passengers travelling together were being extremely disruptive amongst themselves and refused requests from our crew,” the airline said in a statement.
“The captain decided to divert the flight to Bali where Indonesian police took the disruptive passengers off the aircraft. The flight then continued without incident to Phuket.
“We take safety and security seriously and we don’t tolerate disruptive behaviour by passengers on our flights.”
“The other customers onboard supported the decision to offload the group in Bali and thanked the crew.”
Flight JQ27 left Sydney about 2:30pm Sydney time and arrived in Phuket at 11:16pm local time.
The six Australians are set to return to Sydney after being interrogated in Bali, reported News.com,au.
(See story here.)