A man was temporarily restrained after he tried to open the door during a BA flight.
A man suffering a panic attack tried to open the door of a British Airways plane mid-flight on Monday.
Flight BA263 was approximately an hour away from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when the man reportedly attempted to pull the door lever at the back of the plane while screaming, “I want to get out”.
According to reports, Dean Whyte, the brother of heavyweight boxer Dillian Whyte, helped restrain the man repeatedly saying, “calm down bruv”.
Mr Whyte was on his way to to Riyadh to watch his brother fight on the Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr 2 undercard.
Yeta Odusanya, mother of boxer Anthony Joshua, was also reported to be on board.
Mr Whyte told The Guardian: “It was like something out of a movie. When I got there he was shouting “I want to get out” in broken English.
“I managed to grab him and was preparing to slam him hard if necessary but myself and the steward could see he wasn’t quite right in the head so I held him and tried to calm him down. Eventually it worked.”
The man was not restrained for the remainder of the flight. Instead he slowly calmed down and went back to his seat.
Although frightening, it is not possible to open the cabin doors while an aircraft is in flight due to cabin pressure.
A British Airways spokesperson told The Guardian: “Our cabin crew cared for a customer who suffered from a panic attack during the flight. We are sorry for any concern this caused our customers.”
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