Overview
- The incident occurred on June 1, 2026, on a flight from Samsun, Turkey, when a 29-year-old man refused to sit next to a woman and struck a female flight attendant.
- German federal police arrested the man on landing in Düsseldorf after he admitted the assault to officers.
- The suspect insulted officers in Turkish during his arrest and one Turkish-speaking officer understood those remarks, creating an additional charge for insult.
- Early reports misidentified the carrier as Turkish Airlines but later coverage names SunExpress and Turkish Airlines denied involvement; reporting on the operator was corrected after initial accounts.
- A criminal complaint has been forwarded to Düsseldorf police and the public prosecutor, the investigation is ongoing, and legal experts note that Sharia law carries no legal weight in Germany while assault and insulting officers are prosecutable offenses.