A RYANAIR flight to Dublin had to make an unscheduled landing in Germany after a passenger suffered a 'psychotic episode' and began attacking passengers.
The terrifying incident occurred on Ryanair flight FR3333 from Paphos to Dublin Airport on Monday afternoon, when an Eastern European man started throwing punches at other passengers.
The man, 38, accused everyone on the flight of being actors pretending to be travellers, as "they were going to kill him".
Fellow passenger, Martin O'Neill, revealed he was forced to wrestle the man to the ground.
“My seat just started to get slammed from behind. I turned around and there was two guys jostling in the aisle," he told the Irish Sun.
“One of them started shouting and screaming and flailing his arms around and trying to throw punches. At that stage, I got up and tried to get in between them.
“He said he was dying and someone was trying to kill him. It was unbelievable. He said all the passengers were actors and they were there to pretend because they’re all going to kill him.
“Then he dropped down in the aisle and then jumped back up. I was trying to connect with him and said ‘look at me just breathe’ and this went on for like ten or 15 minutes and everyone was shell-shocked.”
Ex-bouncer Martin O'Neill was forced to restrain the manEx-bouncer Martin said he and two other passengers then restrained the man while the pilot made an unscheduled landing in Frankfurt.
Martin added: “There were people handing their children across seats to get away from him because he was flailing around his arms so much. There was a newborn baby there.
“After he kicked off again I had to put him with his arms behind his back pinned on the ground. At the end of the cabin a chap said ‘I have a seat belt you could use’.
“So between us we managed to get two make-shift hand restraints on him with seatbelts. Then we got the notification that the plane was being diverted to Frankfurt so it was still another like 25 or 30 minutes.
“Then a third guy joined us and he was able to talk to him in his mother tongue and that seemed to calm things down.
“I worked in a number of nightclubs all around the world before so I’ve done this procedure hundreds of times but never at 40,000ft.”
The man involved was arrested upon landing by German police and placed in protective custody.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said the unscheduled landing was due to a "disruptive passenger inflight", adding that staff are "fully trained" for such incidents mid-flight.
“We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority," they said.
"This is now a matter for local police."
See More: Plane Attack, Psychotic Episode, Ryanair
