Why unruly passenger was taken off our Abuja/Lagos flight – Ibom Air

Ibom Air has explained the situation surrounding the disembarking of an unruly passenger who disrupted the take off of its Lagos bound flight from Abuja on Friday evening.

A viral video had shown a middle-aged man on board the Ibom Air airplane shouting ‘Tinubu cannot be sworn in’ and one of the fellow passengers responding by telling him to get off the plane because “you are security threat”.

The situation resulted in airport security personnel being called in to forcefully get the passenger off the aircraft. The 6pm flight was delayed for an hour.

Ibom Air has therefore apologised to affected passengers for the incident saying it maintains “very high safety and service standards and will never compromise the safety and security of our passengers.”

The statement signed by Aniekan Essienette reads:

“We wish to inform the public about an incident on our 6 pm flight from Abuja to Lagos on Friday, 31 March 2023.

“A passenger stood up and began addressing other passengers in a manner considered inappropriate and unruly, as he was making other passengers nervous.

“Our crew deemed his continuous unruly behavior unsafe and called on airport security to help with the situation. Upon his refusal to stop or disembark peacefully, the security operatives were left with no choice but to forcefully disembark the passenger as a last option.

“We are aware that several videos and reports of this incident are circulating on social media and wish to provide the right perspective.

“Ibom Air wishes to assure our passengers that we maintain very high safety and service standards and will never compromise the safety and security of our passengers.

“We apologize to the affected passengers for the time it took to disembark this passenger, which caused an otherwise on-time departure to be delayed by an hour.”