An unruly plane passenger who attempted to open the emergency door mid-flight was beaten up and restrained by fellow passengers on a Copa Airlines flight. According to the New York Post, the incident took place on Tuesday on a flight from Brazil to Panama. The flight had been going as planned until 30 minutes before landing a man rushed to the back of the plane with a plastic knife from his food tray and attempted to take a flight attendant hostage with the goal of opening the plane door. 

A video of the incident, shared on microblogging site X, shows the unruly passenger being restrained by other passengers after he attempted to open the plane door 30 minutes before landing. Another clip shows authorities boarding the aircraft and leading the man away in handcuffs with his face bloodied. 

VÍDEO — Passageiro tenta abrir porta de avião em voo Brasília–Panamá; Caso aconteceu na manhã da terça-feira (5), minutos antes de aeronave pousar na Cidade do Panamá. Passageiro foi detido pelas autoridades. pic.twitter.com/gDTyB5fwg3

— Nelson Carlos dos Santos Belchior (@NelsonCarlosd15) November 5, 2024

According to the Post, photojournalist Cristiano Carvalho witnessed the man’s attempt to open the door 30 minutes before landing. “A flight attendant started screaming, and another tried to hold him back, but couldn’t because he was too strong,” he said. 

“He went past the back emergency door after the warning,” Mr Carvalho recalled, adding, “Then he started moving forward and trying to open it.”

This is when passengers sprang to the rescue and fought the man to stop him from opening the plane’s emergency door, the 51-year-old recounted. He said that despite initially struggling due to the man’s strength, fellow passengers eventually succeeded in restraining the airhead after beating him bloody. 

“They beat him a lot until he almost lost consciousness,” Mr Carvalho described.

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In a statement, Copa Airlines claimed that after landing in Panama “the national security team entered the aircraft and removed the passenger, taking him to the judicial authorities”. 

The airlines praised both crewmembers and flyers for coming together to stop the unruly passenger from opening the plane door. “The crew acted quickly and, with the assistance of some passengers, applied the necessary safety protocols to control the situation until landing in Panama. Thanks to the professionalism of the crew, the safety of the flight and passengers was protected,” the airline spokesperson said. 

Meanwhile, this incident comes days after a man in the United States violently attacked a deaf and nonverbal passenger while he was sleeping until the cabin was spattered with blood on a United Airlines flight. Authorities identified the suspect as 44-year-old Everett Chal Nelson. He was charged with one count of assault by beating, striking, and wounding in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the US. If convicted, he could face up to a year in prison. 

When travelling on a plane, passengers should follow some basic etiquette and do their best to not disturb or trouble anyone seated around them. However, recently a flight was forced to turn back after a “passenger from hell” banged on the cockpit door, spewed profanities and slapped another flyer’s glasses off his face. According to the New York Post, the incident took place aboard a Jetstar Flight from Australia to Bali. The flight was less than two hours into its journey when it made the U-turn back to Melbourne to get police help when a passenger became “disruptive”. 

“The Captain decided to return to Melbourne to get assistance from the Australian Federal Police after a passenger became disruptive just under two hours into the flight,” the airline said in a statement. “We know this was a difficult experience for other customers and our team members, and we thank those who assisted with the situation,” it added. 

Separately, as per the Post, eyewitness footage showed a woman with short hair screaming into the face of a seated male passenger as others looked in shock.  “How about try and understand what the f**k is going on before you have a comment,” the flyer yelled.

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A witness described the flyer as the “passenger from hell”. “(She was) verbally abusing everyone in her path! Even shoving a fellow passenger holding a baby,” the witness wrote on social media. “So we were turned around three hours into the flight while she was restrained by passengers and crew in the back. All the poor little kids had to listen to this for five hours,” they added. 

Another passenger posted online that the woman “went loopy and banged on the cockpit door because she thought someone stole her phone”. A flyer also said that the woman was walking up and down the aisle and spitting at people. She added that when a man made a comment to the disruptive passenger, “she got right up in his face and abused the absolute hell out of him and smashed his glasses off his face”. 

When it became clear that the flyer could not be calmed down, the pilot announced that the plane would turn back to Melbourne. Jetstar, an Australian budget airline, confirmed that the captain returned to Melbourne “to get assistance from the Australia Federal Police,” which is still investigating, as per the outlet.