Passengers got into an argument about switching seats that was so heated that their Ryanair flight had to turn back after just a few minutes

• A Ryanair flight last Wednesday turned around soon after takeoff after an argument escalated.
• One passenger told The Sun that a man had asked to switch seats to sit with his family.
• The airline said the incident led to an overnight delay, with passengers booked into hotels.

A Ryanair flight on Wednesday had to turn around soon after takeoff after an argument said to have broken out during boarding escalated.

The flight to London from Agadir, Morocco, was airborne for only about half an hour before turning back to land in Marrakech, per Flightradar24 .

A passenger told The Sun that the argument began when a man started threatening a woman who'd refused his request to move seats so that he could sit with his wife and young children.

"We were only in the air for 36 minutes before we had to do an unexpected landing," a passenger whom the newspaper identified as a 36-year-old finance worker from Hertfordshire, England, told The Sun.

"It was like the flight from hell," they added. "And it all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats."

Video footage obtained by The Sun shows passengers shouting at each other while the cabin crew tries to calm them down. One man can be heard saying, "I will whack your jaw."

Debates over whether a passenger should switch seats to accommodate a family are not unheard of, but they rarely escalate like this.

Unruly-passenger incidents reached new heights during the pandemic. In the US, statistics from the Federal Aviation Administration indicate reports rose sharply after 2020, though they've dropped from a high of nearly 6,000 in 2021.

In a statement shared with Business Insider, a Ryanair representative said that a group of passengers on the flight became disruptive while another fell ill.

It said that when airport medics determined the ill passenger wasn't fit to fly, the passenger "refused to disembark and became abusive towards crew." It added that it took about two hours and help from airport police officers to get the group of disruptive passengers off the plane.

As a result, the Ryanair crew members reached their maximum working time, and the flight had to be delayed until the following day, with passengers booked into hotels, the airline said.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the second flight was delayed by more than three hours.

"We sincerely apologize to passengers for this diversion and subsequent delay caused by a small group of disruptive passengers, which was out of Ryanair's control," the spokesperson added.