A recent Jet2 flight from Larnaca, Cyprus to Manchester apparently saw a woman strip to her underwear and attempt to storm the flight deck while yelling “Allahu Akbar,” but the cabin crew allegedly didn’t act since they weren’t authorized to confine the unruly passenger.
Early on Tuesday morning, Jet2 flight LS944 was forced to make a diversion to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, where police took the woman into custody after she made threats against the plane.
The woman attempted to storm the flight deck twice before being detained, not by flight attendants but rather by alarmed passengers, according to 35-year-old Phillip O’Brien who was on board the aircraft.
The four-and-a-half-hour flight from Cyprus to England apparently had problems relatively shortly after takeoff. According to O’Brien, the woman began to beat on the flight deck door while yelling “Allahu Akbar” as she marched down the aisle in nothing but her underwear.
Hero #British father-of-3, 35, restrains woman,30, claiming to have explosives after she stripped to her underwear and tried to storm plane cockpit shouting 'Allahu Akbar' on #Jet2 flight from Lanarca,#Cyprus to Manchester pic.twitter.com/aXm6kwdFsC
— Hans Solo (@thandojo) August 14, 2022
Other passengers were worried by the disturbance, but the woman wasn’t held and continued to claim there were bombs on the aircraft.
“It was just crazy. At first, it looked like she was drunk – she had the suitcase on her head,” another passenger told the Daily Mail. “The cabin crew said she wasn’t drunk as they had smelt her breath.”
Despite the woman’s threats, the passenger claimed that it didn’t feel like a terrorist incident.
O’Brien claims that as the plane was being diverted to Paris, he assisted in tackling her and carrying her to the ground when she began hammering on the flight deck door a second time.
Local law enforcement alighted from the aircraft when it landed and detained the woman. A Jet2 spokeswoman acknowledged in a brief statement that the flight was forced to reroute because of a “disruptive passenger.”
Any attempt by a passenger to enter the flight deck is typically regarded as a serious threat, necessitating an immediate divert to the closest airport that can accommodate the concerned aircraft.
Photo cover via Twitter: @thandojo
