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PASSENGERS on a flight from hell yesterday spoke of their fury that a yob was allowed to get so drunk at 30,000ft – as more footage of the carnage in the skies emerged.
The Sun revealed how pilots declared a Mayday and ordered an emergency landing after a violent man tried to storm the EasyJet cockpit.
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New film shows the terrifying mid-air scenes in minute detail as the stricken plane from Gatwick to Kos was forced to divert to Munich.
The Sun can reveal that the thug at the centre of the mid-air horror was a West Ham fan who boasted of having served a prison term. He bragged he was flying from Gatwick to Kos to buy cannabis.
One woman passenger told us: “The disruptive passenger was in front of me. My husband said even before we took off that he was drinking out of a large bottle of scotch. He was shouting.
“He was asking for a beer before the plane even took off and the stewardess said he would have to wait until we were in the air as they don’t have a licence to serve alcohol on the ground.
“After take-off, the man’s shouting, swearing and abuse continued.
“I quietly told the steward and stewardess at the back of the plane not to serve him any alcohol as he was already drunk and very unpredictable.
“They said they were aware of him already. It was only when I walked back to my seat that I saw him drinking out of the bottle.
“We tried to calm him down. He told us he was from East London and was a West Ham supporter. I asked him if he was going on holiday and he said he was going to pick up some cannabis.
“When he started up again a passenger at the front told him to shut up, which inflamed the situation.
“The drunk man said he doesn’t like being told what to do, and that he’d been in prison.
“Shortly after this he got out of his seat when the seatbelt sign was on, so I said, ‘mate where are you off to’?
“He just switched and shouted, ‘I ain’t your f****** mate you c***.
“When the drinks trolley stopped in the aisle he was helping himself to snacks and throwing them around the plane.
“We realised it was a serious situation and quite frightening; there was no way it could continue this for another three hours.
“During turbulence the man was shouting, ‘the Captain’s a w*****. He kept getting out of his seat even when the seat belt sign was on.
“He was sticking two fingers up to the cabin crew. He went down the front of the plane and was making suggestive comments to a stewardess and kissed her on the neck. He told one passenger they were really ugly.
“One of the cabin crew gave him a hot drink and I was worried it was going to go over me. He was making suggestive hand gestures with his fingers and tongue.
“We were all crapping ourselves that something serious could happen. He had already broken the intercom.”
Another passenger who works in mental health tried to calm the hooligan down.
One flyer said of her experience onboard: “EasyJet recorded the diversion as ‘extraordinary circumstance’ but it was extraordinary that they actually let the man on the plane and it was extraordinarily unbelievable that no one was injured or seriously hurt.
“Even on the delayed flight from Munich to Kos, one of the EasyJet crew said on the speaker that it was rubbish how the airline had dealt with the whole thing. The new crew were annoyed too.”
Yet another passenger told The Sun: “The guy was drunk when he boarded the plane – he was even allowed to leave the boarding gate before departure to purchase a bottle of whiskey.
“The crew was aware he was intoxicated and should never have been allowed on the plane.
“We had announcements on the plane stating no alcohol was allowed to be consumed onboard other than drinks purchased from the stewards. It was aimed at the man concerned. The whiskey should have been taken off of him.
“He consumed half the bottle on the plane, became abusive, and then soiled the toilet.
“At the point of no return with him, the crew took him to the front of the plane by the exit – it was the worst decision. He tried to open the door and get in the cockpit.”
Police stormed the plane following the emergency landing in Germany on Wednesday and bundled the thug off the plane to riotous applause.
The plane’s intercom – broken in the fighting onboard – couldn’t be fixed and all passengers were forced to stay in Munich overnight.
One woman told The Sun: “EasyJet washed their hands of the incident, advising it was out of their control, which is not the case. The man should never have been allowed on the plane.”
Air rage is at an all-time high, and last week the chief executive of Ryanair Michael O’Leary blamed it on the high level of flight delays – as well as passengers taking drugs as well as alcohol.
The boss of Europe’s biggest budget airline went on to call for a two-drink limit to be imposed at European airports.
EasyJet told The Sun: “Flight EZY8235 yesterday from London Gatwick to Kos diverted to Munich and was met by police due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard.
“Safety is easyJet’s highest priority and our cabin crew are trained to assess and act quickly and appropriately in all situations to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
“While such incidents are rare, we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard.
“The flight was delayed overnight while we arranged a replacement crew and provided customers with hotel accommodation and meals along with updates on the flight’s departure this afternoon. While this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused.”
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