A Belgian couple were ejected from a Ryanair flight to Malaga in early January 2025, for requesting to go to the bathroom before take-off, news outlets RTL Info and aviation24 have reported.
What was supposed to be a surprise Christmas gift in the form of a weekend trip with friends to the popular Spanish resort, turned into a nightmare involving humiliation in front of a plane-load of passengers and even resulted in intervention from the police, the couple say.
Permission denied three times
The pair, named as Joana and Tim by RTL Info, told press that after boarding their flight at Brussels’ Charleroi Airport, Tim asked a steward if he could use the bathroom. He was denied permission and asked to return to his seat and wait – an instruction he complied with in full. When everyone was seated, he repeated the request. “He needed the bathroom so badly that he was almost wetting himself,” Joana explained.
But Tim’s second request was also denied. He was so desperate, the couple said, that he made one last attempt to use the bathroom as the plane began taxiing toward the runway. At this point, a senior cabin crew member informed him that he could go to the bathroom but that the plane was being turned back towards the gate and that the police were on their way.
"Même la police a essayé de parler avec eux": Joana et Tim sont exclus de leur vol Ryanair pour avoir voulu utiliser les toilettes https://t.co/D00G4ENt7p
— RTL info (@rtlinfo) February 4, 2025
“No empathy”
“It was unreal,” Joana said. “They showed no empathy.” Even the police who escorted the couple from the plane found the situation absurd, Joana claims. “They tried to reason with the cabin crew but it didn’t change a thing. Even they thought it was unreasonable to eject us.”
Nathalie Pierard, a spokesperson for Charleroi airport notes that airline rules take precedence in these situations and that the police cannot influence decisions to throw passengers off a flight. “It’s the pilot and the pilot alone who decides whether or not to exclude someone,” she said.
Toilet request was “disruptive”
Meanwhile, police spokesperson Jonathan Pfund told RTL the situation was unheard of. “It’s the first time we’ve ever received a request to intervene in these circumstances,” he said, explaining that in most cases passengers who are escorted from flights are drunk and disorderly.
The couple told press they had reported the situation in a complaint to Ryanair, but had so far received no acknowledgement. According to aviation24, the airline has defended the staff decision, describing Tim’s behaviour as “disruptive”. The lesson? Make sure to use the bathroom before boarding – or make sure your travel outfit features very dark trousers.
