KLM flight en route to Calgary following detour back to Amsterdam due to unruly passenger
A KLM flight bound for Calgary was delayed Sunday morning when an unruly passenger forced the airline to return to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
An aggressive passenger was handcuffed by the crew, according to an article by Doron Sajet in nhniews.nl.
The plane, a Boeing 777-200, was close to Iceland at the time, but turned around and returned to the airport in Amsterdam.
It's not yet clear who the passenger was targeting, but the man was overpowered and had to be handcuffed to his seat.
Dutch police met the flight at Schiphol Airport to retrieve the passenger.
The flight, KL0677, then departed Schiphol Airport at 7:07 p.m. Amsterdam time. It's now scheduled to arrive in Calgary at 7:54 p.m MT.
The flight delay impacted some people trying to fly out of Calgary.
Twenty-eight students from Calgary Academy were supposed to fly with KLM to Amsterdam to connect to Tanzania to help out a school there. That flight was cancelled, causing the students to miss their connection and reschedule to fly out Sunday night.
“So now everything is pushed back a day,” one student, Sophie Mook, said.
“It sucks. It’s sad because a lot of people paid for their trip themselves so, losing that chance and that opportunity to help other people, because of one person, it just shows how much it affects other people.”
John Gradek, the head of McGill University's aviation management program, called the actions taken by the flight crew in this case reasonable.
He told CTV News Calgary if a passenger is considered a threat or they are disrupting others on board, the crew can take action, typically starting with a warning but escalating to more serious action if their behaviour doesn’t change.
“If you’re a passenger on the airplane and you see this, it is not a pleasant sight to see, and you want to make sure the airline acts in the interest of passenger safety and crew safety, bringing this aircraft back on the ground,” Gradek said.
Gradek says KLM is not required to provide compensation to the passengers impacted because the situation was out of the airline’s control.
“It was a security issue and it really was something that the rules exempt the airline from compensation as a result of this incident,” he said.
“So, if KLM decides to do anything, it'll be because KLM feels that they’re being a good service provider and want to do something, but there's no obligation for them to do anything.”
CTV News has reached out to KLM and the Dutch police for details, but haven't yet heard back.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Feds 'not interested' in investing in LNG facilities: energy minister
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the federal government is 'not interested' in subsidizing future liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, including the electrification of projects currently in the works.
Chants of 'shame on you' greet guests arriving for the annual White House correspondents' dinner
An election-year roast of U.S. President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday.
Aerial photos show wide devastation left by tornado in China's Guangzhou
Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed the wide devastation of a part of the southern city of Guangzhou after a tornado swept through the day before, killing five people, injuring dozens others and damaging over a hundred buildings.
Global measles cases nearly doubled in one year, researchers say
The number of measles cases around the world nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, researchers say, presenting a challenge to efforts to achieve and maintain elimination status in many countries.
Fair share: the right office solution can take finding the right partner
The rise of remote and hybrid work has made it harder to justify a full office, so more are leaning on co-working spaces that they share with many others for convenience and cost savings. The choice, however, comes at the expense of privacy and control.
A top Qatari official urges Israel and Hamas to do more to reach a ceasefire deal
A senior Qatari official has urged both Israel and Hamas to show "more commitment and more seriousness" in ceasefire negotiations in interviews with Israeli media, as pressure builds on both sides to move toward a deal that would set Israeli hostages free and bring potential respite in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.
What Trudeau's podcast appearances say about the Liberals' next ballot box question
Trudeau recently appeared on four podcasts as he travels the country talking up the Liberals' latest budget, which he's pitching as a plan to inject more economic fairness into society for those under 40 — a cohort that has kept Trudeau in power since 2015 but is increasingly turning to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Russian drones set a hotel ablaze in a Ukrainian Black Sea city
Russian drones early Sunday struck the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, setting a hotel ablaze and damaging energy infrastructure, the local Ukrainian governor reported, while ammunition shortages continued to hobble Kyiv's troops in the more than two-year-old war.
A munitions explosion at a Cambodian army base kills 20 soldiers, but its cause is unclear
Security was tight around a military base in southwestern Cambodia on Sunday, a day after a huge explosion there killed 20 soldiers, wounded others and damaged nearby houses.