ANTALYA- A SunExpress (XQ) passenger flying from Samsun (SZF) to Dusseldorf (DUS) was arrested on arrival on June 1, 2026, after he refused to sit beside a female traveler and then punched a flight attendant who tried to resolve the situation.
The 29-year-old man, a German resident of Turkish descent, confessed to the assault at Dusseldorf (DUS) but then earned a second charge when he insulted German Federal Police officers in Turkish, unaware that one officer understood the language.
SunExpress Flight Attendant Assault
SunExpress operated the flight from Samsun to Dusseldorf on June 1, 2026. The carrier is a leisure airline set up as a joint venture between Lufthansa (LH) and Turkish Airlines (TK).
German media first reported the case, which was later carried by aviation outlet OMAAT. According to those reports, the 29 year old man objected to sitting next to a woman during the flight, stating that the arrangement conflicted with his reading of Sharia law. When a flight attendant approached to address the situation, the passenger punched her in the face.
Interpretations of the rule cited by the passenger differ widely. Under the reading he referred to, direct contact and interaction with a member of the opposite gender, when the two are not related by blood or marriage, is considered permissible only out of necessity.
In a seating context, the concern is that passengers seated side by side could accidentally touch.
Many travelers who hold similar beliefs do not read the rule this way and consider sitting next to someone of the opposite gender on a flight to be acceptable.
For those who prefer to avoid an adjacent seatmate, SunExpress allows the purchase of an extra seat, which secures additional space without involving other passengers or crew.
Contradiction In Passenger’s Own Conduct
The sequence points to a clear contradiction. The passenger objected to the prospect of inadvertent contact with a woman, then deliberately struck one, which qualifies as direct physical contact of exactly the kind he claimed to want to avoid.
German Federal Police were called to Dusseldorf Airport shortly before 7 AM to take a report of the assault. Officers filed a criminal complaint, and the passenger confessed to striking the crew member.
The exchange with police then took a further turn. The man insulted the responding officers in Turkish, apparently assuming they would not understand him.
One of the officers spoke Turkish, so the passenger received an additional charge of insult on top of the assault charge. Insulting a public official is a criminal offense in Germany and can carry the possibility of imprisonment.
Open Question
One point remains unclear. It is not known how the man came to be seated next to a woman only after the aircraft was airborne.
If the objection had surfaced on the ground in Samsun before departure, the passenger could have been offloaded at that stage.
The available reports do not explain why the confrontation reached the flight attendant only in the air.
Bottom Line
A SunExpress passenger created a serious disruption on a flight from Samsun to Dusseldorf after refusing to sit beside a woman and then punching a flight attendant who tried to help.
Police met the flight in Germany, where the man confessed to the assault and then faced a second charge for insulting officers in Turkish. Both charges now sit with German authorities.
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