Man tied to seat on Ryanair plane after trying to open door mid-flight

Passengers and crew joined forces to restrain a man on a Ryanair flight after he “went beserk” and tried to open the plane door mid-flight.

The budget flight was travelling from Seville to Budapest when the man became aggressive, kicking fellow passengers’ seats, shouting and threatening them with a pen, fellow flyers told Spanish newspaper La Razón.

The situation escalated when the man threatened to open the aircraft door mid-flight, at which point an off-duty security guard intervened to help restrain the disruptive passenger.

At one point, the pilot reportedly had to leave the cockpit to help crew deal with the altercation.

A video taken by a passenger on the flight shows the man appearing to go back to his seat when instructed, then running towards the front of the cabin as other travellers cry out in alarm and some help to restrain him.

The have-a-go heroes were able to secure the man in his seat using seatbelts, and the flight continued to its destination uninterrupted.

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The incident happened aboard flight FR5253 on 11 November, with the smartphone-filmed footage only emerging recently.

The man, who is reported to be Hungarian, was taken into custody by police on arrival in Budapest-Ferenc Liszt airport.

Incidents of unruly passengers have risen during the pandemic, with mask-wearing and alcohol consumption both thought to be tied to many cases.

In an article in its Airlines magazine last month, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) reported that the rate of unruly passenger incidents had doubled in 2020 compared to previous years, and confirmed that the trend has continued into 2021.

In an informal survey of Iata’s Cabin Operations Safety Technical Group, the association found that one member airline had recorded more than 1,000 incidents of non-compliance in a single week, while another had calculated a 55 per cent increase in unruly passenger incidents based on the number of travellers carried.

The Independent has contacted Ryanair for comment.

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