by Kate Heaney
A BRAVE Dunfanaghy man felt compelled to “act as security” when a drunk man on a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Lanzarote awoke and went “bananas”.
Stuart Wilson (52) stepped in after the 6 ft 3 passenger woke up during the flight.
The man, who was sitting in the aisle seat with his girlfriend beside him, knocked her glasses off, punched the baggage bins repeatedly and began calling her offensive names on the flight on July 1.
The woman’s friends on the flight, who were drinking and vaping, gave her “more vodka” to calm her
down.
Speaking to the Donegal News yesterday, Mr Wilson described the man’s girlfriend as “inconsolable” and was crying while the man was “roaring abuse at her and wouldn’t sit down”. He described his behaviour as “outrageous”.
“Everyone was trying to get him to stop.
“There were kids on the plane and an older person. People were crying, they were so upset.
“You cannot blame the staff, they are not paid to stop people fighting,” he said.
Fearing for the man’s girlfriend , Mr Wilson stepped in and confronted the heavyset drunk man telling him: “No one is getting touched on this plane.”
The heroic farmer said that staff eventually managed to remove the man from his seat to sit him down in the back of the aircraft however, the man managed to come back.
(He) got into a conflict with one of the other men. He pushed his head into another man’s head hard, so hard the other man fell over,” Mr Wilson said.
“I’m not security, I was a passenger on a flight,” Mr Wilson said about having to intervene, adding that he had to become “air security” to “try to control the situation”.
The mid-flight ordeal lasted about an hour, according to the Dunfanaghy man, who said it was unbelievable that the other man was allowed to walk off the plane when it landed in Lanzarote without being arrested.
But Mr Wilson said he saw the crazed passenger as he left Lanzarote Airport.
Other passengers thanked the 52-year-old for stepping in, including the man’s girlfriend.
Mr Wilson said he has tried numerous times to get in touch with Ryanair but found then “impossible to contact”.
“Perhaps it is getting to the stage where it might be like some US flights where they have air marshalls on board.”
However, he said he will stick with thte sheep farming rather than apply for such a job.
Ryanair said in a statement: “A pair of passengers on this flight from Manchester to Lanzarote (July 1) became disruptive inflight. Crew defused the situation and moved one of the disruptive passengers to the other end of the aircraft for the remainder of the flight, which landed in Lanzarote as scheduled without any further disruption.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of these passengers’ unruly behaviour. Ryanair is pleased to support this Irish aviation industry declaration to combat unruly passenger behaviour on aircraft.
“The safety and well-being of our crew and passengers is Ryanair’s Number One priority and we try to eradicate unruly behaviour on-board our aircraft.
“We will continue to work closely with An Garda Síochána, the IAA, Irish Airports and the wider aviation industry to eliminate all forms of unruly behaviour in airport terminals and on-board our aircraft.”
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