Take-off was delayed by an hour and half.
16 drunk passengers were escorted off a Jetstar plane at Melbourne airport for 'drunken and disruptive' behaviour. Flight JQ522 never left the tarmac as the intoxicated passengers were ordered off the plane and their travelling partners chose to join them.
The flight was delayed by 90 minutes as the passengers disembarked and it's reported that these 16 GAA players, both male and female, were not all from one particular club. It's believed that the majority came from Michael Cusack’s Hurlers who had just won the Padraig Pearses GAC 7-a-side tournament at Gaelic Park in Keysborough on Sunday. The group were all in Melbourne over the weekend to participate in one of the largest Gaelic sporting events in Australia.
It appears that some of the other passengers on the flight felt that these 16 Irish people were treated a bit harshly. Josh Berg, a passenger on the plane says “I, seemingly along with the other passengers, had no idea why they were being kicked off" he says.
“They weren’t making any noise or doing anything.We heard lots of arguing just outside the plane and then something like six federal police came on the plane and picked people out of the plane,” he said.
Another passenger named William Mulvey says that he was also “surprised” when the 16 Irish people were escorted off. “It was all very strange. I actually felt sorry for them. They weren’t making any noise that I could see. Three of them were sitting four rows in front of me" he says.
Speaking with
The Herald Sun , Jetstar had this to say about the incident "We don't tolerate disruptive behaviour by passengers on our flights, so our crew made a decision with the captain that a number of passengers would not travel on one of our Melbourne to Sydney services overnight".
Quotes via - The Herald Sun and Daily Mail
