British Airways taking off from Heathrow.Photo: David Bank/AWL Images/Getty Images
ABritish Airwaysflight to the Caribbean wasn’t the start to a relaxing vacation that passengers hoped it would be.
On Monday, a man on a flight from London to St. Lucia began smashing a wine bottle and stabbing another passenger on the flight with shards of the glass during an argument,TheSunreported. The incident, which was partially caught on video, reportedly occurred about an hour and 20 minutes prior to landing, and the crew had to wrestle the man to the ground.
“It was a truly frightening experience for the crowded passengers,” a source toldThe Sun.“There was a lot of understandable upset.”
According toThe Sun, the man also smashed the bottle against the overhead bin as glass and blood dripped down onto fearful fliers. In the video, the attacker can be seen wearing a denim jacket, glasses and a hat and was covered in blood.
“Suddenly there was blood in the cabin,” the source told the outlet. “No one knew how gruesome it was going to get. Witnessing that in such a confined space, and not knowing if or how the bloodshed was going to end, was horrific.”
British Airways.Tim Graham/Getty Images News/Getty Images
In addition to the flight attendants who intervened, “some very brave individuals separated the two men and got them back in their seats,” an insider toldThe Sun.
Upon landing, first responders and police waited for the plane’s arrival upon the pilot’s request. Injured passengers were taken to St. Jude’s Hospital for treatment, reportsThe St. Lucia Times. TheDaily Maillater reported that passengers are blaming the airline for providing the attacker with too much alcohol throughout the nearly nine-hour flight.
Multiple men were allegedly “lingering at the back of the plane for hours, loudly partying” and drinking an “endless supply of alcohol” earlier in the flight, and the outlet reported that the men grabbed and harassed women during that time.
She added: “The main aggressor was behaving terribly in the lead-up to the incident, the BA staff were perhaps too intimidated to regain control but the atmosphere was clearly leading to some kind of incident.”
Another woman said the assailant told her his parents had just died and “was touching my arm and generally making me feel very uncomfortable.”
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty
She told the outlet that “flight attendants poured fuel on a fire,” because “they allowed a party atmosphere” while “about 10 men” blocked the flight attendants and other areas of the plane’s facilities.
The woman said female passengers “started panicking and did not stop crying” for the remainder of the flight.
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A St. Lucia police spokesperson told theDaily Mailthat the incident remains under investigation. “We are looking into this with immediate effect. This is a very serious matter which occurred on a plane. This is very serious indeed,” the rep said.
“We’re shocked that anyone would act in this way and are grateful to our highly trained cabin crew and the customers who supported them in handling this difficult incident," a British Airways spokesperson told PEOPLE Thursday.
“We want to assure customers that this behavior will never be tolerated and we will always take the appropriate action,” the airline spokesperson said, adding that the incident is now a police matter. The spokesperson noted that the safety and security of its customers and colleagues is the airline’s priority.
The suspect has not been named and information about criminal charges was not immediately available.
source: people.com
