Someone else's bad behaviour delayed your flight, but you may still be owed compensation

6 minutes read

Last Updated: June 26, 2026

You boarded on time. You did everything right. Then a stranger three rows back had one too many before take-off, refused to sit down, and turned a routine flight into a diversion that cost you the rest of your day.

A week later the airline's email arrives, and it almost always says the same thing: "extraordinary circumstances beyond our control." That phrase is doing a lot of work, and most of it is for the airline. If your flight was delayed three or more hours, cancelled, or diverted because of a disruptive passenger, you might still be entitled to flight delay compensation, and the airline's form letter is the start of that conversation, not the end of it.

Why this keeps happening every summer

Disruptive-passenger incidents are not random. They follow the holiday calendar. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, through its #notonmyflight campaign, estimates that the safety of a flight within the EU is threatened by unruly behaviour roughly every three hours, and at least 70% of those incidents involve some form of physical or verbal aggression. Once a month, on average, a flight is forced into an emergency landing when one of them escalates.

Globally, the picture is slowly improving

The International Air Transport Association, drawing on 93,107 incident reports from more than 140 airlines, found that these incidents are becoming less frequent with one in every 355 flights in 2025, an improvement on one in every 307 the year before.

The two biggest triggers for unruly passenger incidents are passengers ignoring crew instructions and drinking too much. A lower incident rate is little comfort, though, when it is spread across millions of flights because it still strands thousands of passengers every peak season when European airspace is at its busiest.

What "extraordinary circumstances" actually has to clear

Here is where airlines overreach. Under EU261, a passenger flying from or within the EU can be entitled to up to €600 when a flight is delayed three or more hours, cancelled with less than 14 days' notice, or diverted, unless the carrier can prove the disruption was caused by something outside its control. UK261 works on the same principle for flights departing the UK, with compensation reaching up to £520. The airline carries the burden of proof, not you.

The case airlines lean on is the Court of Justice of the European Union's 2020 ruling in C-74/19, involving the Portuguese carrier TAP. The Court did rule that when a passenger behaves so badly that the captain has to divert the aircraft, that behaviour can qualify as an extraordinary circumstance, which would let the airline off paying. What airlines tend to skip is everything the Court attached to that finding. That exemption only holds if the airline can satisfy several conditions at the same time, and falling short on any one of them is enough to defeat its defence.

First, the passenger's behaviour has to have been something the airline could not have seen coming. If gate staff watched as an inebriated passenger swayed and slurred but allowed them to board anyway, nothing about what followed could be a surprise. Second, the airline has to link that specific incident directly to your delay, not point vaguely to trouble on an earlier leg of the aircraft's day. Third, it has to show it played no part in causing the problem, which is hard to argue when its own crew kept refilling the passenger's glass. And finally, it has to prove it did everything reasonable to limit the disruption once it started, such as rebooking the affected passengers quickly instead of leaving them to fend for themselves.

Some incidents really do count as extraordinary circumstances, and it's only fair to say so. A sudden medical episode, a panic attack, or a passenger who turns violent with no prior warning can be impossible to foresee, and cabin crew have limited power to predict any of those.

Disruptive behaviour can count as an extraordinary circumstance, but it depends entirely on how things unfolded,

says Cristiana Toscano, an aviation lawyer at AirAdvisor Portugal.

If a passenger was already aggressive or visibly drunk before boarding and was let on the aircraft anyway, the airline can't call what happens next extraordinary. It would have to show it could not have kept that passenger off the flight in the first place.

These claims are won or lost on evidence, so what you do in the hours after a diversion matters as much as the law itself.

If this has already happened to you, it takes a few minutes to check whether you have a claim, and our team handles the airline from there.

Disrupted flight? You might have a right to compensation - up to €600Check Your Flight

What to do if a disruptive passenger derails your flight

Don't settle for a vague explanation at the gate. Airlines often blame an "extraordinary circumstance" without saying what actually happened, so ask the gate agent or crew to put the specific reason in writing, naming the incident, the passenger involved, and how it caused your delay. That written record matters later. If the airline can't or won't describe the event in any detail, it has little to stand on when it refuses your claim, and you have something concrete to push back with.

Write down the timeline while it's fresh: the scheduled and actual departure and arrival times, the diversion airport if there was one, and how long the delay ran in total. Photograph the departure board, and screenshot a flight-tracking app if you have one open. Keep every receipt, too. Whatever happens with your compensation claim, EU261 and UK261 also require the airline to look after you during a long disruption, which means meals, transport, and a hotel if you're kept overnight. You're entitled to that care even while the airline is still arguing over whether it owes you cash.

Be wary of travel vouchers. An airline that offers you travel credit right away is often trying to close the door on a larger cash entitlement, so don't sign anything until you know what you're actually owed. And if the airline has already rejected your claim, treat that as an opening move, not the final word.

If your flight arrived three or more hours late, was cancelled at short notice, or was diverted, it's worth checking whether you're owed compensation. Our guide on what to do when an airline denies your compensation claim explains how to push back, and our explainer on air rage and unruly passengers shows why these incidents so rarely meet the legal test airlines claim they do.

You didn't cause the disruption, and you don't forfeit your rights because somebody else behaved badly. You only lose your claim if the airline proves it had no part in what happened, and proving it is a far higher bar than sending a form letter. Before your next summer flight, that's the one thing worth remembering: the burden is theirs, not yours.

Sources: International Air Transport Association, Fact Sheet – Unruly Passengers (June 2026); EU Aviation Safety Agency, #notonmyflight campaign; Court of Justice of the European Union, Case C-74/19, LE v Transportes Aéreos Portugueses SA (11 June 2020); EU Regulation (EC) No 261/2004; UK261; AirAdvisor case files.

Author:

Joanna Teljeur

Job/Position: Senior Editor & Content Lead

Joanna Teljeur is a senior editor and writer with 15+ years of experience in editorial leadership, journalism, and content development, specialising in consumer rights, aviation law, and public-interest reporting. Her work focuses on transforming complex regulatory and legal topics into clear, accurate, and accessible content for international audiences.