Ryanair Passenger Eats €10,000 Scratch Card

Ryanair have revealed that a male passenger aboard a flight ate his winning scratch card worth €10,000 after being told he would have to wait until landing before claiming his prize.

A spokesman for the budget carrier confirmed today the winner of a €10,000 Ryanair scratch card, on Thursday's FR1724 flight from Krakow to East Midlands, ate the €10,000 winning ticket after crew confirmed he had won the prize.

The Ryanair spokesman said: "When the delighted crew congratulated the winner and advised him how to claim his prize he apparently became upset that Ryanair’s cabin crew could not pay him the €10,000 there and then on the flight.

"When the crew explained to him that these very large €10,000 prizes needed to be verified with, and collected directly from, the scratch card company the prize winner became angry and decided to digest his win."

The airline said that since the €10,000 prize will now go unclaimed Ryanair and Brand Force, the scratch card company, have decided to offer the cash to charity and have asked Ryanair passengers to vote on www.ryanair.com for which type of charity Ryanair should donate the €10,000 prize to, from the following list.

The charities listed include an anger management charity, an eating disorder charity, a gamblers charity, a disruptive children’s charity and a mental health charity.

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said: "In the last two year’s Ryanair's scratch cards have given away 10 cars, over €300,000 in cash prizes and over 100,000 flight vouchers. Passengers have always been delighted to claim their large cash prizes after returning home. Unfortunately our latest winner felt that we should have his €10,000 prize kicking around on the aircraft.

"Ryanair is now asking passengers to vote on which type of charity Ryanair should donate the €10,000 prize money to with one charity from anger management, eating and digestive disorders to disruptive children’s and mental health charities now set to benefit from a real meal ticket."

(DW/GK)