A passenger was forcibly removed from a kulula.com flight due to fly from Durban to Johannesburg on Sunday night for refusing to comply with instructions from the cabin crew and police.

Sanele Gumede tweeted that tempers had become frayed after the flight was delayed until the early hours of Monday morning.

"She didn't threaten them, she voiced out that she was angry (like everyone else). This drama dragged until 3am, Cops assaulted & dragged her down the flight of stairs. They detained her & flew us at 03:20am," she tweeted.

During a drawn out standoff with police on the aircraft, the passenger refused to leave her seat and all passengers were eventually asked to disembark.

“The safety and security of our customers and crew is our highest priority and is never compromised," kulula.com said in a statement on Monday.

“The captain decided to disembark the aircraft after a customer became unruly and refused to leave the flight after failing to comply with instructions from both the crew and the police.”

The airline said the flight had been delayed because of a weather disruption to an earlier flight.

“We apologise to customers who were affected by the delay. Our crew have the right to work without being verbally or physically abused,” the company said.