An Ibom Air passenger traveling from Uyo to Lagos, Nigeria was filmed striking a flight attendant and then clashing with airport security on arrival on Sunday, August 10, 2025. The airline has banned her, and she’s been remanded to Kirikiri Correctional Centre pending court proceedings.
PRESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
Uyo, 11 August 2025
Incident Involving an Unruly Passenger on August 10, 2025
Ibom Air confirms that on Sunday, August 10, 2025, an incident occurred on board our Uyo–Lagos flight involving a passenger, Ms. Comfort Emmanson, whose pic.twitter.com/kN60D7RU3f
— Ibom Air (@ibomairlines) August 11, 2025
Nigerian state-owned regional carier Ibom Air, based in Uyo, Nigeria, has focus cities in Lagos and Abuja, Ghana and a fleet of Airbus A220s and Bombardier CRJ900s.
Prior to departure in Uyo, crew instructed the passenger to switch off her mobile phone. She refused until the captain addressed the cabin. A seatmate then reached over and switched it off for her, which set off a tirade. However it did not stop the flight from departing.
On arrival in Lagos, the woman waited until other passnegers had deplaned, then confronted the purser who had made her turn off her phone. She reportedly stepped on the purser, tore off her wig, threw her glasses to the floor, and hit her with her shoe, slapping her repeatedly. When another crewmember intervened, she slapped that flight attendant as well.
That’s when the passenger tried to pull a fire extinguisher to use as a weapon. The captain had already alerted airport security and cabin crew prevented her from leaving the aircraft until security arrived and she was forcibly removed. But that didn’t stop her! She slapped the ground supervisor on the ramp, before being handed to police.
In one clip from inside the cabin, a flight attendant says, “She is hitting me.” Another shows officials dragging the passenger from the aircraft while onlookers shout to “drag her out.” The purser can be seen blocking the exit while waiting for security to arrive.
After the clips of the assault went viral, the passenger released her own video claiming she was “begging” the flight attendant to move so she could pass. Be that as it may, she struck the crewmember and they wouldn’t let her pass so she could be arrested.
I guess the lesson is that the phenomenon of unreasonable and poorly-behaved passengers is not, strictly speaking, limited to the U.S.
I think the time has come to start sucker punching these assholes in the solar plexus, then handcuffing them. Hog tie as necessary. Enough already.
Glad at least one country takes these incidents very seriously.
“Tauraron Duniya! Tauraron Duniya!”
where is the national enquirer when you need them?
Bit of a callback (from February 2025), but, if we needed a West Africa correspondent, I believe @Sean M., was with an airline based in neighboring country, Ghana; perhaps, he can fill us in on the ‘real deal’ with Ibom Air and whatever was happening here. At the very least, next time fly Africa World Airlines instead.
Abuja is the capital of Nigeria. It’s not in Ghana.