A male passenger en route from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne was restrained with cable cord with the help of other passengers after a row over smoking ensued on the plane. The flight attendant reprimanded the man and was assaulted by the passenger, Yahoo Travel reports. In a normal situation like this, the captain of the plane will normally divert the plane to the nearest stop to eject the passenger and hand him to the local police, but the captain held an emergency meeting with the crew and it was decided that the flight will proceed uninterrupted but have the rowdy passenger restrained.
An Eyewitness mentioned that the altercation happened around the 7th hour on the 13-hour flight and there were a lot of shouting, rowdiness and screaming which led to the pilot enlisting the help of about 7 fellow passengers to restrain him.
“There was a lot of screaming, shouting and it was terrifying,” a fellow passenger told the Brisbane Times. “There were about six or seven men who held him down and then the crew supplied cable ties to tie him to a seat in the last row.”
“With the male passenger restrained and no longer a threat, a decision was by made by the pilot, in consultation with cabin crew and the airline’s security team, to continue the flight to Melbourne,” said an Etihad spokesperson.
The twenty something passenger was immediately handed to the Australian police once the flight landed at the Melbourne airport.
