Angry Royal Air Maroc Passengers set fire to plane!

According to the Moroccan Daily, Al Massae, five passengers on board a Boeing 757 aircraft, on a Royal Air Maroc flight between Paris, Charles De-Gaule Airport and Moroccan city of Oujda, stated a fire inside the plane as a violent protest unfolded because of delays of more than six hours.

Tensions were such that five passengers set fire inside the aircraft and violently mishandle the plane crew who refused to offer any information to the passengers about the extended delay.

The pilot had to make an emergency landing at Barcelona airport, where the offending five passengers where held by the police as investigation of the incident proceeded.

The troubles stated when the crew ignored the entireties of the passengers inquiring about the delays, its duration and estimated time of departure.

The decision of the flight crew not to communicate with passengers lead to tensions to rise between passengers and the crew and started with mild arguments and ended with the five passengers allegedly setting fire inside the aircraft while in the air which produced panic among the rest of the passengers and led to their arrest of the five by Spanish police.

This is the latest mishap for Royal Air Maroc airlines this summer. Several other incidents were due to extended delays and frequent unannounced flight cancellation, stranded passengers for days at a time at JFK airport in NY, poor communication customer service and the deteriorating labor relations inside the company.

The airline pilots are getting ready to go on strike and ground the airline planes during the month of august, the busiest of year. The pilots, following a union meeting, criticized the airline president, Mr. Driss Benhima, who has been making inflammatory statements to the press.

The airline has recently been transferring aircraft to its other subsidiaries, Atlas Blue airline and Senegal International Air and hiring foreign non-union pilots.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news