Misbehaving Passengers Turn Widebodies Around

A couple of passengers found a novel way of turning around a widebody airliner on Friday when they tried to commandeer business class seats on a United flight from Newark to Tel Aviv. Only about a third of the 330 seats on the Boeing 787 were occupied for the 10-hour flight. Shortly after takeoff, the pair took a look at the sparsely populated front section and claimed a couple of the empty lie-flat seats for themselves. According to Israeli media, the duo refused to show flight attendants their tickets and then “started a riot” before the crew reversed course as the plane crossed the border into Canada. The two were taken off the plane back in Newark but were not charged. The flight was canceled and the other 121 passengers were put up for the night in hotels and rebooked on flights the next day.

Meanwhile, an American Boeing 777 pulled a 180 about an hour out from Miami for a more familiar reason on Wednesday. A woman on the flight to London refused to put a mask on and the plane returned to Miami so she could be escorted off by police. She was not arrested. That airplane was also only about 30 percent full. That flight was also canceled and the other 128 passengers rebooked.