A Ryanair flight from Milan to London descended into panic when two men started eating their passports on board, forcing an emergency diversion to Paris and leaving travellers “terrified” as the bizarre incident unfolded.
Some 20 minutes after departure, just after the seatbelt signs had been switched off, witnesses described how one man methodically ripped pages from his passport before eating them whilst his companion locked himself in the toilet, apparently attempting to flush his document away.
Cabin crew repeatedly knocked on the toilet door, urging the passenger to emerge, but he remained inside as tensions mounted amongst the stunned travellers watching events unfold.
“Staff were notified and went to see what was going on at the front of the plane,” a witness told the Daily Star. “Suddenly the whole mood changed… No one onboard knew what was going on, these people were acting weird.”
The low-cost carrier was forced to divert to Paris, with the passenger describing the aircraft’s descent into the French capital as “the most terrifying 15 minutes of my life”.
“The air hostess 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,” the witness explained.
French officials promptly boarded the aircraft after landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport and removed both individuals from the flight. The entire ordeal extended the journey by two hours, during which authorities conducted thorough baggage checks before clearing the aircraft to continue to London Stansted.
Despite the chaos, passengers praised the airline’s handling of the situation. “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,” the witness said.
“It was really stressful but Ryanair handled it amazingly. I’m just really f****** glad I landed.”
The passport destruction may have been a calculated tactic to claim asylum in Britain, as many asylum seekers destroy their identification before presenting to border control in a bid to obscure their origins and avoid deportation.
According to data obtained through Freedom of Information requests by Migration Watch UK, as few as one in 50 asylum seekers arriving via small boats have passports when picked up by Border Force officials. Just 317 of at least 16,500 boat arrivals between January 2018 and June 2021 were found to have passports – approximately 2%.
The Home Office has confirmed that many Channel crossings migrants destroy their documentation during the journey, often on the instructions of criminal people traffickers. This makes it more difficult for authorities to identify and remove individuals.
Dan O’Mahoney, the government’s Channel threat commander, testified before the Home Affairs Committee in September 2020: “Generally speaking, encouraged by the facilitators, [those crossing] will get rid of any sort of documentation or pocket litter, as we call it in law enforcement—phones, SIM cards, anything—before they are intercepted by Border Force.”
Deliberately destroying documentation is a criminal offence under the Asylum and Immigration Act 2004, carrying a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The Crown Prosecution Service has stated: “The destruction of documents disables the authorities from establishing where an entrant came from, in order to increase the chances of success of a claim or application and/or to thwart removal.”
However, Ministry of Justice data shows a dramatic decline in prosecutions for this offence since 2005, despite the surge in undocumented arrivals.
The incident highlights ongoing concerns about security risks posed by individuals whose identities cannot be properly verified. Migration Watch UK Chairman Alp Mehmet warned: “Verifying that those arriving in small boats are who they say they are is all but impossible given they have nearly all destroyed their documents.”
“And yet, in most cases, we take them at their word and let them in even when there are serious doubts about their age and identity. This is a dangerous loophole that puts the public at massive risk.”
In 2024, 84,200 asylum applications were made in the UK, relating to 108,100 individuals. Between 2018 and June 2025, approximately 168,000 people arrived via small boats, with 95% applying for asylum.
The Channel crossing crisis has placed enormous strain on the asylum system, with the National Audit Office estimating costs of over £15 billion over ten years. Housing asylum seekers in hotels alone costs taxpayers over £8 million daily, according to Home Office figures from January 2025.
Ryanair has previously taken strong action against disruptive passengers, including filing legal proceedings for €15,000 in damages against a passenger whose behaviour forced a Dublin to Lanzarote flight to divert to Portugal in April 2024.
The airline maintains a “strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct” and has warned that future disruptive behaviour may be met with legal proceedings.
The Milan to London route is one of Ryanair’s busiest, with multiple daily flights connecting the Italian fashion capital with Stansted Airport. The incident marks another unusual disruption for the budget carrier, which operates over 3,000 flights daily across Europe.
French authorities have not released details about the identities or nationalities of the two men removed from the flight, nor whether any charges have been filed in connection with the incident.
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Image Credit:
Ryanair flight bound for Tel Aviv — photo by Chris Lofting, licensed under CC BY 2.0
