A guest on a stag party caused a plane to be diverted yesterday after attempting to set his friend’s hair on fire at 30,000ft. The 24-year-old from Widnes was arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft after the incident, which took place on a Monarch flight from Manchester to Majorca. The plane, which had 212 passengers on board, was flying over France around 90 minutes after takeoff when the cabin crew smelled smoke and the captain decided to land at Gatwick. Officers from Sussex Police boarded the aircraft and took the man into custody for questioning. It is understood that both men were part of a stag party heading to Palma, and other passengers told police they believed the incident had been a “prank”. Nobody was hurt, police confirmed. “Monarch confirms that flight ZB532, flying from Manchester to Majorca, diverted into London Gatwick where one passenger was off-loaded from the aircraft due to an incident onboard,” said a spokesman for the airline. “Monarch has a zero tolerance approach to disruptive passengers on board.” A spokesman for Sussex Police added: “The aircraft was diverted to Gatwick and landed shortly after 9am when smoke was detected on board. The smoke came from a passenger whose hair had been singed by another passenger that he was travelling with.”
