A video showing Spanish police removing a woman from a Ryanair flight, minutes before take-off, has received nearly 200,000 views, with passengers claiming it was because she had too much hand luggage.
Ryanair, which restricts passengers to one item of hand luggage weighing no more than 10kg, has denied that the incident was related to baggage limits, and has said that the police were called to deal with disruptive behaviour.
The video shows a woman, carrying a book and a rolled-up scroll that would not fit in a suitcase, arguing with officers who refused to let her stay onboard at Valencia’s Manises airport.
Comments from passengers suggest that the woman had begged passengers to take her scroll in their bags, and that she had attempted to pay the extra €50 charge, but her card was not working.
“The stewardess and the guard would not let us help her,” said one of the comments. “It saddens me the lack of empathy and humanity, and it was very hard to watch. Someone should apply some common sense, even with these rules.”
Ryanair has said that the passenger was in breach of airport security regulations, and that she pushed past gate agents without showing ID or having her boarding card examined.