His disruptive appalling behaviour on Thursday 13th April meant the flight had to be diverted to Faro, Portugal so Forrest could be off-loaded and detained by police. After the 55-year-old was offloaded, the other customers had to disembark the aircraft in Faro so it could be cleaned before departing to Tenerife.
As well as causing a delay to customers looking forward to their well-deserved holidays in Tenerife, this also meant customers due to travel back to Glasgow from Tenerife had to spend another night in their destination due to the late arrival of the aircraft.
Jet2 and Jet2holidays arranged overnight hotel accommodation and refreshments for these customers, however this obviously caused considerable inconvenience for customers and families on their journey home after their holidays. The customers were flown back to Glasgow on Friday.
The company has confirmed it will now vigorously pursue Forrest for the full recovery of all costs incurred by this diversion, which is likely to be in excess of £25,000. These costs include hotel accommodation for all customers and crew in Tenerife, airport charges, fuel costs, and cleaning costs. The airline has also confirmed that it will assist the authorities with any legal action they wish to take.
Phil Ward, Managing Director of Jet2.com, said: "Mr Forrest’s behaviour was absolutely disgraceful, and we would like to apologise to all of our customers on board and colleagues who have been impacted or affected. As a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour and we would like to thank the Portuguese authorities for their assistance in offloading Mr Forrest."
Ward added: "As we have done before, we will now vigorously pursue Mr Forrest for all the costs that we incurred as a result of this diversion, as well as banning him for life. We have a very busy summer coming, and the safety and well-being of everyone on board our flights is paramount. This event should act as a stark warning to anyone who thinks that it might be acceptable to behave in an unacceptable manner onboard one of our flights. Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of customers enjoy their flights and continue to have a lovely holiday."
