This is the shocking moment a British holidaymaker forced a plane to divert to Crete after shoving an air stewardess and screaming at fellow passengers. 

Witnesses have described how the 38-year-old scratched the brave cabin crew worker, leaving her bleeding, while hurling abuse and threatening other travellers after a row sparked by someone kicking the back of her seat. 

The passenger, who was travelling with her husband and young child on a plane bound for Egypt, was said to be heavily intoxicated and became so aggressive that the captain was forced to divert for safety reasons.

Appalling footage filmed inside the cabin shows her gesturing wildly, clapping her hands and swearing as the crew repeatedly begs her to sit down. 

Other travellers can be heard telling her to 'just chill out' and 'relax' as she points at the staff and shouts. 

As her outburst escalates, annoyed passengers in the row behind her tell her to 'shut up', to which she retorts: 'You f***ing shut up' and blurts to the cabin crew that she 'couldn't give a f***' along with other inaudible expletives. 

She then threatens other travellers, yelling: 'You'll go down with a bang in a minute.' In the clip, the girl travelling with the woman can be seen with her head buried in her hands, looking mortified. 

She also turns on her partner and grunts: 'Shut the f*** up. I'm done with you anyway. I hate you anyway. I f***ing hate you.'

One traveller who saw the drama unfold told the Daily Mail: 'She kicked off on the plane and moved seats because apparently someone was kicking a seat, so she got irate.

'They ended up having to move passengers that were in row one into her row, which was 11. She was booting off about that. 

'I think they moved her to row one so they could keep an eye on her because she was shouting and being aggressive at that point. She was moved next to us, so that's why we had a prime view of all this incident.'

The passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, added: 'She was being really aggressive about the fact that the crew challenged her. She was calling everybody the C-word.'

'The whole plane was telling her to shut up at this point. I just kept telling her to stop swearing.'

At one point in the footage, the woman gets up and charges at the onlooker after she told her to be calm.  

According to the witness, passengers initially stayed quiet as they did not want to provoke her. 

She said: 'A lot of people on the plane didn't say anything as they didn't want to antagonise her. Her partner didn't get involved until it was too late. I asked him to try and calm her down. 

'I told the woman there were kids in the plane and she was scaring them as well as having a minor next to her.'

The pilot eventually announced the diversion to Crete, which the passenger described as 'not ideal'.

She explained: 'Obviously, it was not ideal. You're on your way to Egypt, and then it gets diverted. But I understand why it had to happen because the safety of people is paramount. 

'She could not have continued on the flight because God knows what she would have done. The communication from the captain was brilliant. He kept us informed every step.' 

Even as the aircraft touched down in Heraklion, the woman refused to back down.

The traveller recalled: 'When we touched down, the police didn't board to get her. She said she was walking off with her head held high, and nobody would be coming on.

'She also said she wanted a cigarette – on the runway with loads of fuel'.

The woman was arrested after the plane landed and is expected to face prosecutors in Crete, while her partner and daughter continued to Egypt.

Incidents like this have become increasingly common, with drunken passengers forcing diversions, delays and arrests. 

Airlines warn that disruptive behaviour in the air puts passengers at risk and costs companies thousands of pounds each time a flight is diverted.

This week, it was reported that a Ryanair service from London Luton to Alicante was forced to land in Toulouse after Daniel Ashley-Laws, a British stag-do passenger, tried to open an emergency exit. 

French police boarded the plane and removed five men before the flight could continue.

And in September, a flight from Manchester to Ibiza was delayed when a drunken passenger refused to fasten his seatbelt. 

He argued with the crew and was eventually dragged off by police, sparking cheers from frustrated holidaymakers.