A heroic Ryanair passenger has described his actions as “security” on a horror flight from the UK to Lanzarote.
Stuart Wilson, 52, said he stepped in to help after a 6ft 4in drunk man woke up and “went crazy” on the Ryanair flight from Manchester Airport to the Spanish island on July 1.
He said the drunken man, who was sitting in an aisle seat next to his girlfriend, knocked his glasses off his head and repeatedly punched the luggage compartments, the ceiling, the armrests and the seat in front of him.
“This guy was screaming, calling his girlfriend a bitch, a skank, a slut. He kept calling her a skank,” a shocked Wilson told the paper. Irish Independent.
He added that the woman’s friends, who had been drinking and vaping during the flight, gave her “more vodka, trying to calm her down.”
Stuart Wilson, 52, said he stepped in to help after a 6ft 4in drunk man woke up and “went crazy” on the Ryanair flight from Manchester Airport to the Spanish island on July 1 (file image of a Ryanair plane)
The farmer from Dunfanaghy, a rural town in Ireland’s County Donegal, said the bride was “inconsolable” and crying as the man “shouted abuse at her and refused to sit down.”
“Everyone was trying to get it to stop. There were children on the plane and an elderly person. People were crying, they were very upset,” Wilson told the outlet.
He said he decided to intervene and stood in front of the 220-pound man, telling him: “No one will be touched on this plane.”
He said staff eventually managed to get the man out of his seat and into the back of the plane, but the man managed to get back in.
“He got into a fight with another man. He hit another man hard with his head, so hard that the other man fell to the ground,” the Irishman said.
“I’m not a security person, I was a passenger on a flight,” Wilson said of having to intervene, adding that he had to become “a member of air security” to “try to control the situation.”
The in-flight ordeal lasted about an hour, according to Wilson, who said it was incredible that the man was allowed to leave the plane when it landed in Lanzarote without being arrested.
But Mr Wilson said he saw two men beating the crazed passenger, who ended up with a bandaged head and suspected broken ribs.
Other passengers thanked the 52-year-old for intervening, including the man’s girlfriend.
Ryanair said in a statement: “A couple of passengers on this flight from Manchester to Lanzarote (1 July) behaved disruptively during the flight.
‘The crew calmed the situation and moved one of the problem passengers to the other end of the plane for the remainder of the flight, which landed in Lanzarote as scheduled without further disruption.
The in-flight ordeal lasted about an hour, according to Wilson, who said it was incredible that the man was allowed to leave the plane when it landed in Lanzarote without being arrested (file image)
‘We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused as a result of these passengers’ unruly behavior.’
The spokesman added: ‘Ryanair is pleased to support this statement by the Irish aviation industry to combat unruly passenger behaviour on aircraft.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our crew and passengers is Ryanair’s number one priority and we seek to eradicate unruly behaviour on board our aircraft.
‘We will continue to work closely with An Garda Síochána, the IAA, Irish Airports and the wider aviation industry to eliminate all forms of unruly behaviour in airport terminals and on board our aircraft.’
It is understood that crew on board did not witness passengers consuming their own alcohol or vaping on board, as described by Mr Wilson.