TUI passengers' holidays upended after two people smoking on flight refuse to stop

British holidaymakers heading home after some sun, sea, and sand in Cancun, Mexico, found themselves trapped in the significantly colder northern US state of Maine, after two passengers on their flight refused to stop smoking and started a fight.

The pilot of the cross-Atlantic TUI flight headed for London Gatwick was forced to make an emergency landing on Tuesday, after two passengers were caught "smoking in the toilet."

Despite UK carriers enforcing a ban on smoking for the past three decades, the pair refused to stop lighting up, even when the pilot warned he would land the plane if they did not.

Angry passengers on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight told the New York Post that the unidentified smokers appeared to be a couple, whose on-board mayhem then devolved into a fight. "They were obviously drunk, and he basically assaulted his partner," one fellow traveller detailed.

As a result, all 267 passengers from Cancun were forced into an unscheduled stopover in Bangor, Maine. Flight recordings reveal the pilot saying to air traffic controllers, "Cockpit is secure, and there's two passengers fighting, and the crew has pretty much gotten them under control."

Within minutes, air traffic controllers had redirected the flight and by 9.30pm, the TUI flight was on the tarmac in Maine with airport officials escorting the pair of smokers off the plane.

However, the nightmare travel experience had only just begun for their fellow passengers, who were forced to spend an unexpected night in Bangor before they could get another flight home.

They would have to wait until 3pm on Wednesday to begin the transatlantic leg of their journey, landing safely at Gatwick later that day.

The two passengers who had caused the mayhem luckily avoided charges from US Customs and Border Protection officials, who decided to place them on separate flights home.

A spokesperson for the border force said: "This incident involved a foreign-to-foreign flight that was diverted due to an in-flight altercation between two passengers.

"Upon arrival, CBP officers removed both individuals from the aircraft. Although no criminal charges were filed, CBP processed the two subjects for expedited removal."