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by Pol Allingham
A woman reportedly “threw £5k in cash'' at a man on an airport runway after they were escorted off a plane.
Witness Andy Singh, from Gravesend, boarded the 9.35pm flight from Heathrow to Bangkok on Saturday (September 30), for his month-long holiday to Thailand.
However, onlookers said an argument began between a couple five hours into the flight.
Holidaymakers claimed the couple had a “blazing row” and the pilot told passengers that for safety, he would have to turn back and land in Vienna, Austria. This would take an extra two and a half hours.
“They kept talking about money,” Andy said. “He would say 'she’s got my £5,000 in her bag’.
“The captain said we had to go back to Vienna because [of] staff safety and the passengers’ safety.
“He said it would take two and a half hours to get back there, and he’d decide what to do after that.”
Videos show police escorting the pair off of the flight after the plane landed, but then on the runway the woman appears to throw cash at the man.
Notes fly in the air and land all over the tarmac and the male, along with airport workers, start picking it up.
Footage shows the man, wearing a light coloured tracksuit and carrying a neck pillow, scowling at Andy for recording the footage.
The 63-year-old grandad said: “The police took the lady first. He decided after a couple of minutes on the tarmac to grab the bag from the lady, but the lady just threw all £5,000.”
Both were put in a police van, and footage shows an officer trying to pick up some of the strewn cash.
Andy explained: “Some of the notes were floating away because nobody picked them up, they only picked up the nearest ones.”
He said all of the passengers were put up in a hotel to set off again at 5.30pm the next day.
Arline Eva Air has been approached for comment.