An Ibom Air passenger, Ms. Comfort Emmanson, has been charged to court and remanded in Kirikiri prison following her violent altercation and assault on a crew member on a Lagos bound Uyo flight .
The minister of aviation and aerospace development’s special adviser on media and communications, Tunde Moshood, announced this in a post via X on Monday.
According to him, travellers should always exercise caution when they are in the air.
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He wrote, “The more reason the flying public should be more careful, the unruly passenger on Uyo-Lagos bound Ibom Air, Miss Comfort Emmanson has been charged to court and she’s now cooling off in Kirikiri.
The development follows Ibom Air’s confirmation in a statement that Ms. Emmanson’s actions on Sunday, August 10, 2025, endangered the safety of its crew, passengers, and aircraft.
Ibom Air explained in a statement released on Monday that Ms. Emmanson was told to turn off her mobile phone in accordance with aviation safety procedures just before takeoff from Uyo, but she refused until the Pilot-in-Command made an announcement.
The statement said that a fellow passenger sitting next to her eventually switched off the phone, resulting in a verbal altercation. The situation was resolved, and the flight left as planned. Once in Lagos, Ms. Emmanson waited for all passengers to disembark before confronting the Purser, who had previously instructed her to do so.
“She walked up to the unsuspecting Purser, stepped on her, forcibly tore off her wig, removed her glasses, and threw it to the floor, and used her footwear to assault her. She slapped her several times and when the other cabin crew member tried to intervene, she slapped her too.
“She then attempted to forcibly remove a fire extinguisher to use as a weapon, an act that could have damaged and grounded the aircraft,” the statement partly read.
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The Pilot-in-Command had by then alerted airport security. “Before security could arrive, the Purser as seen on the viral video on the internet, prevented the passenger from leaving the aircraft until security arrived.
“The arrival of Ibom Air Security personnel did not deter the passenger as she attacked them as well, lashing out violently at both Ibom Air and FAAN security. She was then restrained and removed from the aircraft by force. Even after disembarking, she continued to assault both Ibom Air and FAAN security staff, and even slapped the ground supervisor,” Ibom airline added.
Ms. Emmanson was taken into custody by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) security and handed over to the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.
Meanwhile, Ibom Air in a more recent statement has issued a life time no-fly ban on the said passenger following this incident.
This is coming only few days after similar incident involving popular fuji musician, Kwam 1 De ultimate and value jet airline.
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