Furious on-board quarrel between husband and wife, Lufthansa A380 forced to make emergency landing
From memory, this is the first 'hijacking' ('diversion' in English) of an aircraft caused by an argument between husband and [...]
Lufthansa
Star Alliance
MUC
Thailand
From memory, this is the first 'hijacking' ('diversion' in English) of a plane caused by an argument between a husband and wife. And what an airplane--no less than an Airbus A380. On the evening of November 28, the Lufthansa flight LH 772 was took off from Munich at 11:20 p.m., just over an hour later than the scheduled time (10:10 p.m.), with arrival in Bangkok scheduled for 3 p.m. the following day.
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The Thai capital is one of the destinations (along with New York, Boston and Los Angeles) on which the German airline has reactivated its A380s after parking them for more than two years following the Covid pandemic. The operational fleet is of six airplanes, but Two others will be returned to service between 2024 and 2025 (LH had 14 A380s in its fleet, but six were sold).
On LH 772 last Tuesday, the night went smoothly as the plane flew over Eastern Europe, the Black Sea, Turkey and Iran. But as the giant of the skies was in the skies over Pakistan and the crew was preparing to serve breakfast, all hell broke loose.
A 53-year-old German man sitting in the Business Class cabin and his Thai wife they began to quarrel. From words they moved on to 'deeds,' meaning. he threw food, drinks and breakfast dishes at her, while the woman called for help from the crew and the other passengers watched in amazement as the scene unfolded. The situation escalated when the man, clearly impaired by alcohol, held a lighter and tried to set fire to the blanket under which ma wife had taken refuge.
At that point, the red alert went off. The cabin crew informed the captain., who decided to abort the flight and land the couple, judging that their conduct endangered the safety of the flight. Indian air traffic control contacted, the pilots decided to go down to Delhi, where the A380 landed at 10:26 a.m. local time.
Once on the ground, the couple was handed over to Indian authorities, although the woman had asked to be allowed to continue the flight to Bangkok alone. According to the Indian Express newspaper, husband and wife (as yet unknown...) Were boarded a few hours later on a flight to Munich. (where, we assume, the crew was instructed not to serve alcohol to the 53-year-old for any reason).
LH Flight 772, instead, Has left for Thailand exactly two hours after arriving in Delhi, landing at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport 4 hours and 45 minutes later.
