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Turkish police fined several airline passengers who stood up before the aircraft engines had come to a complete stop during a Pegasus Airlines flight from Sofia to Istanbul, local media reported. The incident, which took place on flight PC272, was captured on video and shared by the Turkish aviation news platform HavaSosyalMedya.
The footage shows at least three female passengers standing in the aisle while the cabin crew repeatedly asked them to sit down. The crew made announcements in both Turkish and English, urging passengers to remain seated until the engines were fully shut off—a standard aviation safety rule.
According to HavaSosyalMedya, the cabin crew’s verbal warnings did not succeed in persuading the passengers to comply. As a result, the crew called in the police upon landing at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport. The police then issued fines to the passengers who had ignored the safety instructions.
The incident follows a recent circular sent out in early May by Türkiye’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which warned all carriers operating in the country about a growing trend of passengers breaking basic safety rules. The directive stated that those who stand up before the engines stop may be fined and could be blacklisted by up to 25 airlines.
The DGCA also requested that in-flight announcements be updated and made clearer, as incidents involving passengers attempting to smoke or move about the cabin before it is safe have reportedly increased.
Flight attendants on domestic Turkish Airlines routes told RIA Novosti that the new measures have already led to action being taken. Several passengers have been fined under the updated enforcement policy.
“Crews tried to calm and seat the passengers, but when that failed, police were called onboard and issued fines,” the report noted.
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