On an Austrian Airlines flight

Violent deportation detainee triggers emergency slide

An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 had to be evacuated due to a detainee on deportation who was causing a disturbance shortly before takeoff.(Bild: APA/dpa)

A deportation detainee threw a flight from Berlin’s BER Airport to Vienna completely off track: The man went on a rampage on board, and police had to intervene. In the scuffle, however, the man triggered the emergency slide. The result: All passengers had to disembark. Not everyone was allowed back on board!

On Thursday, a deportation detainee was scheduled to be transported from Berlin’s BER Airport via Vienna to Larnaca, Cyprus. But aboard an Austrian Airlines Airbus A320, things took a different turn: The man from Pakistan suddenly began causing a loud disturbance in the rear rows, creating a tense atmosphere throughout the entire aircraft within minutes. The situation escalated rapidly. The police officers accompanying him had to intervene to bring the situation under control. Eventually, the man was escorted off the plane.

But that was far from the end of the incident: During the scuffle, the emergency slide was deployed at the front door—a critical safety moment with far-reaching consequences. A spokeswoman for Austrian Airlines confirmed an incident on the plane. The passenger had “made himself heard loudly,” which is why it was decided that he had to disembark. Unfortunately, the emergency slide was activated in the process. The entire plane had to be evacuated as a result, and all passengers disembarked.

An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 had to be evacuated due to a deportation detainee causing a disturbance shortly before takeoff.(Bild: APA/dpa)

One-third of the passengers were unable to board
The consequences were significant: For safety reasons, the originally planned number of passengers was reduced from 161 to 110—51 passengers were unable to board. This was a safety requirement, according to the Austrian Airlines spokesperson. The emergency slide was then replaced in Vienna. It wasn’t until late morning that the first passengers were allowed back on board. Instead of taking off at 7 a.m. as planned, the flight ultimately departed with a delay of about two and a half hours.

Not an isolated incident!
A total of 22,787 people were deported from Germany last year, 19,987 of them by air. However, 1,593 deportations had to be aborted. The reasons are varied and included medical emergencies, active and passive resistance, lack of personnel or documents, as well as self-harm or attempts thereof. Refusal by the Federal Police to take custody or reasons related to the flight itself are also cited.

Costly Incident for Airline
Theincidentis also likely to be financially painful: If an emergency slide is deployed on an Airbus A320, it gets really expensive. Repacking and reinstalling it alone usually costs several thousand to tens of thousands of euros and takes between four and eight hours. If the slide needs to be replaced, costs can quickly reach up to 60,000 euros. The operational consequences are even more costly: delays, rebookings, and organizational overhead often drive the total costs in such cases to over 100,000 euros.

Statement from Vienna
The Ministry of the Interior in Vienna issued the following statement regarding the incident: “The deportee is a Pakistani national who was en route from Germany to Cyprus (Larnaca) (...). Only a stopover in Vienna had been planned. “This was a so-called transit flight—the Austrian authorities have no jurisdiction under asylum or immigration law.”