Mentally unstable man threatens to crash Delhi-Mumbai Jet flight

Passengers of a Delhi-Mumbai flight were tucking into their meal on Saturday morning when a flyer stood up, threw his food tray and said he had taken control of the plane and would crash it.
As scared passengers watched, he began walking to wards the cockpit. Before panic set in, the flyer was pinned down, sedated and handed over to security staff on landing in Mumbai. The flyer, it turned out, was mentally unstable. He was released after his family apologised.
The unruly passenger, seated in the economy section, remained quiet as Jet Airways' 9W 332 covered over half of the distance from Delhi to Mumbai. "About an hour into the flight, a passenger suddenly got up and threw his food tray. He shouted that the plane had been remotely taken over and would crash. He then tore down the curtain separating the business class and started walking menacingly towards the cockpit," said KPMG partner Amber Dubey who was on the flight.

"Two passengers and some off-duty pilots in the business class blocked him and pinned him down. A doctor on board gave him sedatives which helped calm him," Dubey said. The crew also held back some aggressive passengers who wanted to thrash the person. He was escorted to the back of the plane where two off-duty pilots held guard," KPMG partner Amber Dubey said. The person made these threats in fluent English and spoke out loud for all to hear. The pilot then informed Mumbai air traffic control and requested for security personnel to be sent to the aircraft on landing.
Once in Mumbai, the man was handed over to Central In dustrial Security Force personnel. His family had come to receive him at the airport.They reportedly told authorities that he was disturbed and may not have taken his medicines, resulting in aggressive behaviour.

"The passenger was released as he apologised to the airline, which then did not submit any complaint to us," a CISF spokesman said. Given his mental condition, the security agency did not detain him for long and released him around 10am, two hours after he created the ruckus on board.
"This could have turned ugly but was handled well by the crew and passengers.With air traffic growing by leaps and bounds, such instances are likely to recur.There is a need to enhance the number of plainclothes air marshals. We also need to build an `unfit to fly' registry with biometric details of high-risk passengers," Dubey , an aviation expert, said.

(culled from timesofindia.indiatimes.com)