Petrified passengers on a London-bound flight from Melbourne via Hong Kong froze in their seats as a crazed man ran down the aisle of the Qantas jet screaming: ‘You will all die!’
Yelling and praying in a foreign language, the maniac threatened to kill himself along with fellow passengers on the packed-out plane several hours after it took off from Melbourne.
Courageous cabin crew jumped on the man and managed to restrain him as he threatened to open an emergency exit door, shouting: ‘It is God’s will’.
After landing safely in Hong Kong, terrified passengers told friends of the flight of fear when they made urgent phone calls as the man was taken into custody.
One woman named Helen who was sat in Premium Economy throughout the flight, told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper: ‘There were some very scared and upset passengers.’
‘He was praying in what was believed to be Hebrew and yelling out that he was going to kill himself and all the passengers would die,’ she said.
‘There was one lady that was quite upset. She moved into our cabin in Premium Economy because she said “I heard too much, I heard too much – I can’t go back down there (into the main part of the cabin).”’
‘The cabin crew were very professional. They were fantastic. They just kept everyone calm,’ Helen said.
Another passenger said: ‘The man had to be held down by crew members, who restrained him and sat him down in the front row of economy,’
The crazed man was handcuffed and curtains were drawn around him, with two crew members sitting nearby for the duration of the flight.
A spokeswoman for Qantas said confirmed that there had been an incident on flight QF29 from Melbourne to Hong Kong, during which a passenger ‘became disruptive’.
She added that Hong Kong authorities were waiting to meet the plane upon its arrival.
The spokeswoman said cabin crew were trained and equipped to deal with this kind of situation to ensure that the safety of passengers was not compromised.
The aircraft had taken off from Melbourne shortly before midnight Australian time and was due to arrive in London early Thursday.