Well this is a new low, even for a bachelor party. A 24-year-old man was pulled off a Monarch flight from Manchester to Majorca after he allegedly set his friend's hair on fire...as a joke.
Roughly 90 minutes into the flight, cabin crew smelled smoke and the pilot decided to turn the plane around and land at Gatwick, The Telegraph reports. Police pulled the suspect , whom our colleagues at HuffPost UK identify as Colin Jones, off the plane despite fellow passengers' statements that it was all a "prank" and none of the 212 people on board were injured.
The airline confirmed that the flight was diverted due to an incident on board, adding, “Monarch has a zero tolerance approach to disruptive passengers on board.” A police spokesman confirmed that the smoke came from a passenger who set his friend's hair on fire.
Jones was charged with "reckless or negligent behavior likely to endanger an aircraft and other people in the aircraft" and has been freed on bail, according to HuffPost UK.
This isn't the first in-air kerfuffle of sorts that has caused a ruckus or even a diversion. In May 2011, fighter jets were scrambled and a United flight had to make an emergency landing after passengers got into a fight over a reclining seat. That same month, a woman's clothes were ripped off and her hair was pulled out during an in-air fight on a Virgin Atlantic flight. A "mass-brawl" broke out on another Virgin Atlantic flight in June. Even Octomom has gotten into an in-air war of words. And, adorable Colin Firth once stood idly by as a passenger accused another of stealing; that flight was met by police at Heathrow.