A Melbourne mother says she survived an “escape from hell” after being booted out of a grounded Jetstar plane and put into a police van over a heated argument with the captain.
Nikki Mitropoulos was vacationing in Thailand with her son and a friend before undergoing a tummy tuck in Bangkok, A Current Affair reported. Still in pain and recovering from the cosmetic procedure, she boarded the Jetstar flight on Saturday and faced a nine-hour journey home.
But things took a turn for the worse when JQ30 was forced into an emergency landing in Alice Springs after a passenger suffered a suspected stroke. While still on the tarmac, the 320 passengers learned that the Dreamliner had an electrical defect, which is why a second plane had to be flown in.
Seven hours later, everyone was still stuck on board.
“The air conditioner stunk. There was no food,” Ms Mitropoulos told A Current Affair. “I said is there a way to speak to the captain? I said I just want to talk. I am not a troublemaker.”
But during her conversation with the pilot, the mother-of-one said the captain spoke abruptly.
“He says, ‘No, I’m done, I’m going to make an example of you, you’re going to get arrested,'” she said.
While Ms Mitropoulos admitted she may have “driven the questioning”, she claimed she was scared and “suffering from a panic attack”.
Women are to be kept in “a cell”.
Officers were called to board the Jetstar flight and put Ms Mitropoulos and her friend Michelle in the back of a police van.
The mother says they were told they would stay in a guard room. But when they arrived at Alice Springs police station, the sergeant told them they had been “evicted”.
Two days later, still ill, in pain and exhausted, Ms. Mitropoulos shared a video on her Instagram account, finally heading home.
“So we’re checking out of the hotel in Alice Springs after a flight from hell,” she told the camera Monday while walking alongside friend Michelle. “I don’t know, the hell we’re going to get on a damn flight today, I have no idea.”
“I can’t, I can’t,” Michelle said in the background. “I get panic attacks just thinking about getting on that plane right now.”
Jestar’s “zero tolerance for disruptive behavior”
In a statement to Yahoo News Australia, Jetstar said its crew is there to ensure a “safe and respectful environment for all”.
“We have zero tolerance for disruptive behavior,” a spokesman said. “Any passenger who refuses to follow instructions or acts abusively will be removed from the flight.”
The airline apologized to customers for the diversion to Alice Springs, stating that since the airport is for domestic travel only, the airport needed to work with authorities to allow passengers to disembark in a specially designated area of the airport where they could board Drinks and food would be provided.
The replacement plane landed in Melbourne just after 11pm on Monday, two days after passengers left Bangkok. According to Jetstar, all passengers were offered a $200 voucher as compensation for the disruption.
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