"Scandal on Yerevan-Moscow flight: the plane was forced to return." Lia Sargsyan

Journalist Lia Sargsyan wrote on her Facebook page: “Scandal on Yerevan-Moscow flight: plane forced to return.”

According to “Ishkhanutyan,” the plane that was flying from Yerevan to Moscow was forced to return yesterday at midnight due to a scandal on board.

“One of the passengers said that the owner of a well-known furniture store in Argavand, a certain Vahan Shahbazyan, was drunk and insulted the crew and passengers inside the plane, and displayed aggressive behavior. The situation became so tense that the plane had to be returned, Shahbazyan was arrested and taken to the police station. Due to his behavior, it was not possible to ensure the safe flight of the plane, and it had to take off with a delay of about 35 minutes. We tried to find out the identity of Vahan Shahbazyan. He is a resident of Argavand, and has a previous conviction for a crime committed during his service. The indictment reads: “Vahan Shahbazyan was charged with the fact that, being a conscript of the RA Ministry of Defense military unit No. 21127, on 12.05.2017 at around 21:30, in the absence of subordinate relations in the company’s storage room, he violated the rules of the servicemen’s code of conduct stipulated in Articles 13 and 65 of the Internal Service Code of the RA Armed Forces, got into an argument with Private M. Ghazaryan, during which he used violence against the latter, hitting him in the back of the head with a tin can of paint, causing a short-term deterioration of health in the form of a laceration to the top of the head and occipital region.”

Regarding the incident that occurred on the plane with the participation of the aforementioned person, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said: The Zvartnots Airport department received an alarm that there was an unruly passenger on board the Yerevan-Moscow flight. The departing team found out that the 29-year-old passenger of the mentioned flight was in an inadequate condition, showed disrespect towards the crew and passengers of the aircraft, grossly violating public order, and also uttered sexual insults towards the security guards for a long time. He was brought to the police department and presented to the investigation department with the prepared documents.

Kima Avdalyan, the spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, told “Ishkhanutyan” that Shahbazyan had been arrested, the media outlet wrote.