A Swedish student who refused to sit down on a plane until a passenger being deported to Afghanistan was taken off the aircraft is being hailed as a hero by some and a busybody by others.

Elin Ersson grabbed her phone, stood up and began live-streaming when she realised that a man aboard the plane at Gothenburg airport was being deported to Afghanistan.

The 21-year-old kept recording for almost 15 minutes and refused to budge despite pleas from airline crew and aggression from another passenger, who accused her of “upsetting” people before trying to grab her phone out of her hand.

“I don’t want a man killed just because you don’t want to miss your flight,” she told a passenger. “I’m doing what I can to save a person’s life. This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime.”

Commercial plane pilots cannot take-off until all passengers are seated.

She found the support of some other passengers, with a Turkish passenger telling her “we are with you”.

Her persistence eventually paid off, and the man facing deportation was eventually taken off the flight as passengers backing Ms Ersson’s stand applauded.

The incident happened on Monday and the Facebook stream Ms Ersson recorded had been viewed more than 2.3 million times by Wednesday afternoon.

Unsurprisingly, opinions on Ms Ersson’s actions varied widely. Some lauded her bravery, calling her a “hero” and “example to us all.”

“Imagine if everyone had her strength to stand up for their beliefs as this young woman so bravely did,” one woman wrote in reply to the video.

Others were less favourable. “This young lady has no right to interfere in a situation she knows nothing about,” one woman wrote, as others said she had accomplished nothing, since the deportee would have been placed on another flight.

It is not known why the man Ms Ersson stood up for was being deported. Sweden deported 415 Afghans in 2017.