Actress escorted off flight after alleged punching incident

A flight from Manila has been forced to return to the airport after an actress allegedly punched a fellow passenger and a flight attendant.

Actress Melissa Mendez, 50, from the Philippines, was escorted off the Cebu Pacific plane when it returned to the airport and met by 20 security personnel on Friday, according to the Daily Mail.

Related: Violent passenger rushes cockpit

The incident was reportedly sparked by Mendez sitting in another passenger’s seat and refusing to move.

There have been conflicting reports as to what happened.

Model and rugby player Andrew Wolff was on board the flight and wrote about the situation on Instagram, as well as shooting videos of the captain telling Mendez that she would have to leave the flight.

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Wolff claimed that Mendez sat in his friend’s seat and only agreed to move to her own seat after being spoken to by “flight attendants, the captain and even ground security”, Asian Buzz reported.

He reportedly wrote that the actress smelled like a “beer brewery” and continued to curse at his friend, before allegedly punching the friend and the flight attendants.

According to Wolff, the captain announced that the flight had to return to Manila “due to one unruly passenger”.

Related: Wrong passenger forces plane turnback

However, Mendez has told ABS-CBN that she was not drinking before the flight although she did admit to hitting Wolff’s friend, Rey Pamaran, who she claimed behaved disrespectfully towards her.

According to Asian Buzz, Mendez said in a statement that she sat in Pamaran’s seat because she wanted to take pictures of the clouds.

She claimed that he was rude to her when she approached him before the flight landed and reportedly admitted to slapping him.

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