Should Involuntary Fliers Be on Commercial Flights?

A regularly scheduled flight by Swiss airline Edelweiss turned nearly turned into a diplomatic situation. When passengers discovered that one flyer was being removed to Morocco, escorted by police officers, they turned on their cameras to film the situation.

The incident took place in February 2018, when the man flew from Morocco to Zurich Airport (ZRH) on an Edelweiss flight. Although the flyer was supposed to connect forward to Asia, police suggest he purposefully missed the flight and did not request asylum. As a result, he was ordered back to Morocco aboard Edelweiss, because he did not have a visa to enter Switzerland. Police say he refused to leave on his own, forcing a police escort back to his native country.

When other passengers boarded the flight, they reported hearing noises: “At first I thought it had to be a toddler, but then I realized: The voice was far too deep,” says one of the passengers, named Miriam.

The Swiss weekly Schweiz am Wochenende reports,

“When they reached their seat in the second-back row, they saw where the calls came from. A man sat bent over between two men who later revealed themselves as police officers. One of the officers had his arm around him. Miriam could not tell if he was pushing the man down or if he was patting him on the shoulders.

Then she saw the shackles. And the man was still screaming. Miriam recorded the scene with her smartphone. You can hear the man scream loud and with high cadence. Miriam asked the two officials what was going on. They answered that the man did not take the chance to travel without police escorts…

The passenger said that the plane’s crew informed her the man had turned down the chance to travel without a police escort. They added that she and her partner were welcome to deplane if they felt uncomfortable.

A flight attendant offered the young couple that they could get out if they felt unwell. ‘The offer infuriated me. Not I felt uncomfortable, but obviously this involuntary passenger, ‘says Miriam. The other passengers leafed through the duty-free catalog, demonstratively simulating normalcy, Miriam recalls. She herself became loud and made the other passengers aware of the situation. ‘I found it unbearable to simply ignore a person screaming for help,’ she says.”

After several other passengers complained, police removed the man from the flight without further incident. It is unclear when he was returned to his native country.

Swiss flights are being increasingly used as a method to remove passengers from the country. According to data pulled by thelocal.ch, one-third of all commercial airline bookings made from Switzerland are reportedly for the purpose of deportation.

Of the 7,147 passengers deported in 2017, 78 percent were either accompanied by the police to the airport, had a police escort on the plane, or traveled in restraints. Only those that are uncooperative enough to have to be gagged and bound are placed on “special” flights.

But now that passengers are complaining about going on holiday with passengers in distress, do you think these practices will change?

[Photo: Shutterstock]