KLM flight escorted to Abu Dhabi due to unruly passenger; escort made by Dutch Air force’s 2 F-16s

Earlier on Saturday, the Royal Netherlands Air Force scrambled tow of its F-16 fighter jets to escort back a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Abu Dhabi back to Amsterdam. The reason for this sudden escort was the fight that broke out on the plane due to one unruly American passenger. The fight broke out over Germany when the plane was only half an hour away from its landing at the Schiphol Airport.

Joanna Helmonds; one of the spokeswomen for the Netherlands Royal Maréchaussée told media that , “a 29 years old American passenger aboard the flight started being aggressive after one other passenger told him to go back to his seat. At this man made a scuffle of the things on aircraft and cabin crew along with some passengers finally managed to restrain that unruly passenger.”

Heleen Makkinga, a spokeswoman for KLM told media officials that, airline regrets this unpleasant incident, but still the cabin crew followed the normal protocol of dealing with an unruly passenger. She also told that, “Passengers and cabin crew has filed complaints against this man”.

As a result of this incident, many passengers were injured. The plane which was an Airbus A330-200 registered PH-AOM operating KLM flight KL452, was immediately given a clearance for the emergency landing at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

The man was arrested immediately by police upon plane’s landing. The examination led to state that the man was disorientated and was sent to a psychiatric hospital for further observation.

Benelux Airspace has been recently taken over by The Royal Netherlands Air Force in place of the previous Belgian Air Force.