Flight diverted after man 'ate his passport' 15 minutes into the journey

A flight was forced to be diverted after a man shocked other passengers as he ‘ate his passport’ 15 minutes into the journey.

What was meant to be a relatively short plane ride taking off from Milan and heading to London Stansted turned into a nightmare when two men began acting ‘strangely’.

This occurred shortly after takeoff when one passenger started to tear pages from his passport and began eating them on the flight.

This is according to witnesses who spoke to the Daily Star, where they recalled how people around started to ‘freak out’ over the commotion.

Things took a turn for the weirder when another man got up from his seat and ran to the bathroom to attempt to flush his own passport down the toilet.

One witness said: “Essentially the flight took off and 15-20 mins into the flight, once the seatbelt sign was off, something very strange happened at the front of the plane.

“Staff were notified and went to see what was going on at the front of the plane.

A Ryanair flight from Milan to London made an emergency landing due to suspicious passengers who began panicking and trying to dispose of their passports. They ended up with both their meal tickets and a trip to jail. https://t.co/CdePlehWdt pic.twitter.com/UkTDhpRv6y

— New York Post (@nypost) September 29, 2025

“Suddenly the whole mood changed - no one on board knew what was going on, these people were acting weird.”

One witness even described the situation as the ‘most terrifying 15 minutes of my life’ as flight attendants rushed to try to stop the man from flushing away his passport.

The witness continued: “This led to even more tension. The airhostess then made a public announcement that was so blunt and to the point. That freaked people out to another level. No one knew what was going on.”

As a result of the incident, the flight was forced to divert to Paris, where the men were then arrested by the French authorities.

Afterwards, the plane continued on to London, arriving hours later than it was originally scheduled to.

The witness went on to praise the staff onboard the flight for how they handled the situation, adding: “I think Ryanair were brilliant in handling it in a certain way. They gave out drinks towards the end of the flight as we were coming in over Stansted.

“It was really stressful but Ryanair handled it amazingly. I’m just really f***ing glad I landed.”

Ryanair has not yet commented on the incident.

People took to social media to react to the news, with one user writing on X, formerly Twitter: “ZERO tolerance for sketchy people on planes.”

And another added: “Um, yeah, eating the pages of your passport is definitely strange behavior.”