A Ryanair flight bound for Dublin was forced to turn back to Porto after a passenger claimed she was being followed by three people. The 48-year-old woman, a Brazilian national, handed a flight attendant sheets of paper detailing her claim and asked for them to be passed to the pilot.
Incident details
The unnamed woman was removed from the Boeing 737 after it landed back at its departure airport and was identified by local authorities. The incident involved Ryanair flight 7073, which had departed Porto Airport before turning around.
Delay and response
The flight left Porto again just before 1.30am and arrived in Dublin around 3.15am local time, two-and-a-half hours behind schedule. A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This flight from Porto to Dublin (22 Sep) returned to Porto shortly after take-off due to a false security report, which was quickly resolved before the flight continued to Dublin following a 2hr 33mins delay.”
Conflicting reports
Portuguese media offered differing accounts of the episode. Correio da Manha reported that the woman returned to the plane after being identified by authorities “without police verifying her allegations.” Other Portuguese outlets said the passenger had displayed “disorderly behaviour” and was escorted out of the airport by police. They also claimed the pilot sent a squawk code to air traffic control, a signal used to discreetly indicate unlawful interference such as a hijacking or cockpit intrusion, ahead of the unscheduled turn-around.
