Two families were thrown off a plane after a row broke out over a boy watching The Karate Kid – causing the pilot to make an emergency diversion.
The five-year-old was watching the 2010 remake of film on his iPad when a woman four rows in front is said to have became frustrated and asked him to turn it off.
The boy’s mother, 26, claims that he was watching the film on a low volume but the woman became aggressive and shouted racial abuse at him.
She also alleges that the woman’s other-half grabbed her disabled partner by the neck.
As the two families confronted each other, the pilot made an emergency landing in Porto where police were waiting for both groups.
However, the boy’s mother, a lettings officer from South London, is threatening to sue the airline insisting that they were the victims of the incident.
She told the Sun: ‘This incident involved racial abuse, discrimination, and physical assault.
‘My son was left extremely scared and distressed.’
The easyJet pilot made an emergency landing in Porto where police were waiting for both families (stock)
The five-year-old boy was watching the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid (pictured) on his iPad when a woman four rows in front is said to have became frustrated and asked him to turn it off
The families were returning home from a holiday in Lanzarote to Gatwick (pictured) but were left in Porto to make their own way home.
She said: ‘This incident involved racial abuse, discrimination, and physical assault.
‘My son was left extremely scared and distressed.’
The mother added that she believes her family should have been supported and said she had not heard back from easyJet despite nine months of complaining to airline, which has banned those involved from future flights.
The families were returning home from a holiday in Lanzarote to Gatwick but were left in Porto to make their own way home.
Sources claim that both families were aggressive towards airline crew.
EasyJet said: ‘Safety is our highest priority. We do not tolerate disruptive behaviour.’
It comes as last month an EasyJet passenger put a man in a headlock and repeatedly slapped him in an apparent row over snacks being dropped on the floor.
The intense brawl broke out on a flight from London Stansted to Amsterdam, with tensions already high after a two-hour delay to take-off due to bad weather.
The intense brawl broke out on a flight from London Stansted to Amsterdam, with tensions already high after a two-hour delay to take-off due to bad weather
Shocking footage shows how a stronger, older passenger flew off the handle and started to attack the younger man for allegedly dropping his crisps and other snacks
Shocking footage shows how a stronger, older passenger flew off the handle and started to attack the younger man for allegedly dropping his crisps and other snacks.
The clip shows the broad-shouldered man holding the shorter, younger passenger in a tight headlock in the plane’s aisle – and giving him a hard slap round the face.
He then pushes him hard on his chest so he falls back into his row, knocking over one of his two friends who were stood up behind him to try to intervene.
The moment was so shocking that, according to an easyJet spokesperson, the flight had to be ‘attended by police prior to departure due to two passengers behaving disruptively onboard’.
Witnesses said the young man had been told off by the other passenger for his untidiness which caused the three lads to throw insults his way, starting the heated row.
One of the lad’s friends, stood up behind him in the row, tries to break things up, shouting loudly and firmly, ‘Calm down, calm down!’, holding one hand up in peace and using the other to try to loosen the man’s grip on his friend’s neck.
Equally, the passenger immediately next to the attacker can be seen trying to calmly de-escalate things too.
He puts a firm hand on the man’s shoulder, seemingly to discourage him from further violence – but loses his grip as the enraged passenger goes in for the slap.
Their peaceful interventions were apparently no match for the around 6ft tall attacker, blinded by his fury.
In the background, a passenger can be heard pressing an alert bell for cabin crew to come to the fight at the front of plane in the clip from December last year.
Nearby passengers watched on in a near daze, with many stood up and turned round to see what the commotion was about.
One could be heard whispering quietly, ‘Bang him!’.
But another man in the row in front of the young lad finally managed to take things down a notch.
He put his arm across the man’s chest to encourage him not to retaliate before exiting his own row to place himself between the brawlers.
A spokesperson for easyJet told MailOnline: ‘Flight EJU7840 from London Stansted to Amsterdam on 27 December was attended by police prior to departure due to two passengers behaving disruptively onboard.
‘easyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time.
‘Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s priority.’
