A father has recalled the frightening moment federal police removed three men from a plane bound for Bali after an alleged drunken altercation.
AFP officers were called to Darwin Airport on Friday after a Virgin Airlines plane from Brisbane to Denpasar was forced to land early.
Police allege the captain diverted the plane after the trio refused to move from their exit row seats when staff realised they were drunk.
The men are facing fines after they allegedly became increasingly disruptive with staff before consuming more duty-free booze and vaping on the aircraft.
Keith Johnson was a passenger on the plane for his first ever trip to Bali with his wife Jodie, their two daughters, and their friends when the drama unfolded.
He said he was worried for one of his daughters, 18-year-old Jessica, who was sitting behind the men when the AFP boarded the plane.
“I was concerned they (police) were going to drag the men through the plane. I didn’t know what that was going to mean,” he said.
“Were they going to have to get Tasers out or were they going to have to use pepper spray or something like that?
“I didn’t know what that was going to look like, so that was a concern.”
Fortunately, Mr Johnson said his daughter had been safe and calm throughout the ordeal and downplayed the alleged behaviour.
Both she and her father praised the conduct of AFP officers once on-board, but were critical of how Virgin staff managed the three men.
Mr Johnson claimed the airline had allowed the men, who were obviously intoxicated, onto the plane and permitted them to drink more.
His daughter Jessica said she saw staff allegedly hand the men more drinks before they were confronted by a more senior staff member.
“The supervisor of the cabin crew was the catalyst for escalating the matter,” Mr Johnson said.
“He just came over and he was argumentative with them, telling them what they were doing was wrong.
“As a result, they were fighting back, going: ‘you can get f****d blah, blah, blah, we’re paying customers etc.’
“The way he was talking to them was just in a manner that just provoked the issue.”
Mr Johnson believed the plane might not have been diverted if staff had better handled the alleged behaviour.
And while the family finally made it to Bali, Mr Johnson said the incident had “wrecked our day”.
“By the time we got to the hotel, it was about 10pm – so that day was wiped out for us,” he said.
“That’s all day. Day one. The first day of the holiday was completely gone.
“We just got here and had a couple drinks and then went to sleep.
“Whereas we could have been down on the beach.”
Mr Johnson said he intended to take his complaints to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
And with an around-the-world trip in the offing soon, he said he would think again about flying Virgin.
“If (the alleged situation) could have been handled a lot better so I would think about whether this is best practise on another route,” he said.
A spokesman for Virgin said the safety of guests and crew is the airline’s “top priority”.
“Our crew took steps to prioritise the safety of everyone on board and diverted the flight to Darwin, where the aircraft was met by the Australian Federal Police and disruptive guests were offloaded,” they said.
“The flight then continued safely to Denpasar.”
In a statement, AFP said they had escorted the three men from the plane cabin about 4pm on Friday without incident.
The trio were spoken to by police and cautioned within the terminal before being released from custody.
They are expected to be fined for the offences of offensive or disorderly behaviour, and consuming alcohol and smoking on board an aircraft.
Darwin Airport Commander Superintendent Greg Davis said the AFP would not tolerate offensive and disruptive behaviour on planes.
“We know that the majority of passengers do the right thing,” he said.
“They should not have their travel disrupted or feel unsafe because of the bad behaviour of some individuals
“We again remind the public that airports are not nightclubs.
“We have zero tolerance for abusive and aggressive behaviour at airports and on aircraft.”
Virgin Australia said it was unable to comment further due to the ongoing investigation by the AFP.