‘ He’s being taken from his family’ . . . mutiny of the virtue signallers on Flight TK1986

THE video of the escort team’s capitulation to the passengers’ mutiny on flight TK1986, and Yaqub Ahmed’s removal from the aircraft, is a 3½-minute object lesson in mob rule.

The moral for the mutineers – and for Ahmed himself – is if you make enough noise, even against Government officials carrying out a lawful process, you’ll eventually get your way.

As the video opens, the burly Home Office official is out of shot, asking an angry passenger: ‘Do you know his situation, sir? No, exactly.’ The passenger responds: ‘He knows his situation and I know he’s scared.’ Then he chants loudly: ‘Take him off the plane! Take him off the plane!’

The official then says: ‘If we take him off, everyone on this plane will have to get off.’

Amid the cabin’s clamour, some of the virtue-signalling vigilantes appoint themselves as impromptu human rights observers, waving camera phones aloft amid a barrage of shouts and whistles.

A bearded British man in a blue T-shirt then appears, with his phone filming. He recommences the ‘Take him off the plane!’ chant as the official rolls his eyes with exasperation.

A few others take up the chant, though many simply look on.

Ahmed, who has been complaining loudly, cranks up the volume, his screams drowning out everything else.

The man in the T-shirt becomes Ahmed’s spokesman, earnestly relaying his message: ‘He says they’re separating him from his family – his family’s here.’

Another bearded man jabs his finger at the official, telling him: ‘When he gets to Mogadishu, they’re gonna kill him,’ drawing his finger across his throat for dramatic effect.

The blue-shirted man, nods fervently and says ‘exactly!’ as the ‘take him off!’ chant begins again. The other bearded man declares: ‘He’s going to die – definitely they’re gonna kill him!’

The blue-shirted man calls down the aisle: ‘He says he wants to get off the plane.’

With more groans from the prisoner, he demands: ‘Why don’t you let him off the plane?’

The official responds: ‘I’m doing my job, sir – it’s what the Home Office do, I’m afraid. I don’t make the rules, sir. I just carry them out. And people don’t like me for it.’

Passengers tell the official the man’s screaming is scaring them.

By this stage, ground crew have connected steps at the rear and the four-strong Home Office team, backed up by police officers, raise Ahmed to his feet.

Miraculously, his screaming ceases immediately and he says thank you to his supporters.

There is applause from the passengers. The man with the blue T-shirt calls out ‘Good luck!’, amid cheers and whoops while another shouts: ‘You’re free, man!’ A woman says with satisfaction: ‘Masha’allah’, meaning ‘What God has willed’.