'People are shouting into the pilot deck, calling him a coward, and telling him to get out and face them like a man,' one stunned flyer recounted

A Ryanair flight descended into a hellish 12-hour ordeal after severe weather forced the aircraft to land twice in different countries.

Flight RK8288 left London Stansted for Tirana at 4pm on June 3, and was expected to reach Albania within three hours.

Instead, passengers endured diversions to Brindisi in Italy and Thessaloniki in Greece as thunderstorms stopped the craft landing at Tirana Airport.

The plane finally touched down in the Albanian capital at 5am local time, roughly nine hours behind schedule.

But on its second stop in Greece, police were called aboard the aircraft to restore order after frustrated travellers began confronting crew members.

The aircraft was filled with rowdy stag party groups and young travellers clutching duty-free vodka bottles ahead of festival season in the Balkan nation.

Several British passengers were said to have been visibly drunk before takeoff.

A source told the Mail that food and water ran out during the lengthy delays.

Passengers were initially refused the chance to buy refreshments while stranded on the tarmac in Italy.

When sales eventually resumed, everything except a few crisp packets quickly sold out.

One heavily drunk passenger refused to follow instructions and wandered around the cabin.

"She literally grabs him, picks him up like a child, and pushes him back down to his seat... it was mental," the source said.

When the aircraft reached Thessaloniki, passengers staged what the source described as a "mutiny" against the captain.

CHAOS IN THE AIR - READ MORE:

"He's a coward, the pilot needs to come out and face us like a man!" a group of enraged men shouted towards the cockpit.

Around 12 travellers announced they would not remain on board, telling the pilot: "There's no way you can keep us here."

Greek police then boarded the jet and are believed to have told crew to let the disgruntled passengers leave.

"People are shouting into the pilot deck, calling him a coward, and telling him to get out and face them like a man," the passenger said.

But the source told the newspaper how his attempt to claim compensation was automatically rejected when he entered his flight number.

"It was an automatic rejection as soon as I put my flight number in. I got an automated email being like: 'Your claim's been rejected,'" he said.

He has now escalated his dispute through AviationADR in pursuit of reimbursement.

In correspondence seen by the Daily Mail, Ryanair stated the flight was "disrupted due to unexpected and extraordinary circumstances, which were beyond our control".

A Ryanair spokesman said the diversions occurred due to adverse weather at Tirana Airport and a subsequent thunderstorm.

The airline added that crew opened its onboard bars after 45 minutes so passengers could access refreshments.