Rugby players thrown off flight

A group of 19 rugby players, thought to be on a stag weekend, were thrown off an Easyjet flight after they had a drunken row with passengers.

The team, from Greater Manchester, were on board a flight from Liverpool to Cologne when the trouble broke out at about 1415 BST on Friday.

The group were removed from the aircraft and one man was arrested.

Martin Lafferty, 26, of Stretford, was charged with being drunk on an aircraft and being drunk and disorderly.

The sportsmen were thrown off the plane before it took off.

A Merseyside Police spokesman said: "We were called to an incident at Liverpool John Lennon Airport involving passengers who had just boarded an Easyjet flight.

"Nineteen people were taken off the aeroplane and one person was arrested."

A spokesman for Easyjet said they had a zero tolerance policy to drunken behaviour.