An incident during a planned deportation at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) caused significant delays and security measures. A loud scuffle broke out in the rear rows of an Austrian Airlines plane scheduled to depart for Vienna early this morning.
A detainee awaiting deportation violently resisted the police officers accompanying him during the boarding process. In the ensuing commotion and physical confrontation, the emergency slide at the front door of the Airbus A320 was unintentionally deployed. The airline confirmed that the troublemaker was subsequently escorted off the aircraft by the Federal Police.
The activation of the emergency slide had immediate consequences for flight safety and the aircraft's capacity. According to international safety regulations, an aircraft may only operate with a specific number of passengers if one of its emergency exits is not fully functional. Since the affected door was no longer available for a rapid evacuation without the slide, the number of passengers had to be reduced from the original 161 to 110. A total of 51 people were denied boarding and had to disembark, while the remaining crew and passengers continued their journey with a delay of approximately two and a half hours. The defective slide will be professionally replaced at the aircraft's destination in Vienna.
Additional data from federal authorities illustrates that aborted deportations by air are not isolated incidents. Last year alone, over 1.500 deportations involving the Federal Police were prematurely terminated. The reasons for this range from active resistance and self-harm to medical emergencies or pilots' refusal to transport unruly passengers for safety reasons. Despite these incidents, air travel remains the primary route for deportations; of nearly 23.000 deportations last year, almost 20.000 were carried out by plane. The incident at BER Airport underscores the operational risks for airlines and passengers during such operations.
The affected flight, which was scheduled to depart at 7:00 a.m., did not reach Vienna until late morning. The Federal Police are now investigating to what extent the detainee can be billed for the costs of the technical malfunction and the rebooking of the other passengers. Since deportations are to be carried out more frequently under the new federal government and the stricter policies of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, aviation industry representatives have long been calling for an optimization of the accompanying procedures to avoid disrupting regular scheduled flights. Internally, the incident is being treated as a security breach and will prompt a detailed investigation into the onboard procedures.