'Mass brawl' breaks out on Ryanair flight from Morocco to London with passengers screaming at each other when row erupts after a family asks to swap seats

• Were you a passenger on the Ryanair flight RUK3034 from Morocco to London on Wednesday? Contact chris.jewers@mailonline.co.uk to share your story

A mass brawl broke out on a Ryanair flight from Morocco to London last week forcing the plane to divert just 36 minutes into the journey.

Video from the cabin shows passengers screaming at each other in a row that was reportedly sparked when a family asked to swap seats.

Visibly flustered cabin crew are seen trying to calm the passengers down as the plane soars at 30,000 feet.

The plane was travelling from Agadir to London Stansted on Wednesday evening when a row broke out between two families as people boarded, one witness said.

The passenger said a man, believed to be in his late 20s, asked another passenger to move so he could sit with his wife and children, according to The Sun.

However, the other passenger - a woman who was sitting with her own daughter - reportedly refused to move for the man, who became angry at her.

The witness said the irate man started threatening the women.

Despite this, the plane took off with no issues, but as soon as the seat belt signs were turned off, the woman's husband - said to be in his 30s - leapt to his wife's defence.

The two men threw punches at each other, the witness said, while Ryanair staff tried to intervene and bring an end to the fight.

'They were trying to punch each other,' a British passenger told The Sun anonymously, saying that this led to the mass brawl.

'One of the families was part of a larger group so other passengers started to join in.

'Then a lady in the row behind started to have a panic attack because of everything going on. She was screaming and there were kids crying. 

'It was like a snowball effect,' the 36-year-old passenger said, describing the journey as a 'flight from hell'. 

'It all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats,' they added.

The plane was diverted and landed at Marrakech around 30 minutes after take off.

Flight tracker website FlightAware showed the journey of flight RUK3034 as it took off from Agadir, a city on Morocco's southern Atlantic coast.

The radar map shows the plane travelling north before making an abrupt turn east, before landing in Marrakesh, 127 miles north-east from where it took off from.

Moroccan police met the plane and marched the nine people who were involved in the cabin scrap off the aircraft.

To add to the chaos, another passenger fell ill amidst the fight and had to be given oxygen mid-flight. He was treated by medics who determined he was unfit to fly.

The unwell man then became abusive towards the cabin crew and refused to disembark, with this also being captured by mobile phone footage.

He can be heard saying that the crew 'think I'm a terrorist,' adding: 'that's why they're bringing the whole army here to take me down.'

He is also heard threatening: 'Give me my f****** bag. I will whack your jaw bruv' as other passengers begged him to get off the plane.

He was also removed by police.

In the two hours that it took cabin crew and police to remove the disruptive passengers from the plane, the staff reached their maximum daily working hours.

This meant that all passengers had to disembark the plane, were herded onto a bus, and taken to a hotel where they stayed the night.

They were all booked onto another flight the following day, which was also cancelled, meaning they didn't arrive back to Stanstead until Thursday evening.

In a statement to MailOnline, Ryanair confirmed the series of events and apologised for the 'diversion and subsequent delay caused by a small group of disruptive passengers' saying that this was out of the airline's control.

'This flight from Agadir to London Stansted (3 July) diverted to Marrakesh after a small group of passengers became disruptive, and during which time another passenger became ill onboard,' the statement said.

'Crew called ahead for both medical and police assistance, which met the aircraft upon arrival at Marrakesh. The small group of disruptive passengers were then removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie.

'The passenger who became ill was provided with oxygen onboard before being treated by airport medics, who determined he was not fit-to-fly.

 'This passenger refused to disembark and became abusive towards crew and was also removed from the aircraft by airport gendarmerie.

'As it took almost 2hrs in total to treat and offload these disruptive passengers, the crew reached their permitted flying hours and the flight was delayed overnight.

Affected passengers were provided with overnight accommodation and transport to/from the airport. This flight departed to London the following day (4 July).

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