A rowdy Russian man was tied up by fellow passengers after he refused to stop drinking during a seven-hour flight from Bangkok.
The unnamed 26-year-old “looking completely sober” when he boarded the plane, according to Russian airline S7, which operates the route from the Thai capital to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
But he then began “drinking whisky from a bottle he carried on board”, says the Daily Mail - despite airline regulations stating that passengers can only consume alcohol purchased during the flight.
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Witnesses say he became “offensive and threatening” about halfway into their journey, raising his voice and using obscene language.
And he continued on his rampage despite repeated warnings from cabin crew and even the pilot, who threatened to make an emergency landing in China or Mongolia to hand him over to police.
A spokesperson for the airline said that staff took the unruly passenger into the plane’s kitchen area to try to calm him after “he started to offend and threaten other passengers and the crew”.
But as his behaviour grew increasingly violent, staff and fellow passengers sprang into action to restrain the hooligan.
The Daily Mail reports that a male passenger struck him, while other offered their belts to “hog-tie” the drunk man, binding his wrists and ankles together to restrain him.
Video footage posted online “shows the man tied with sticky tape and belts on the floor of the aircraft’s galley”, where he spent the remaining four hours of the flight, which was carrying 158 people, reports the Daily Mirror.
Even after he had been restrained, the passenger continued to “behave inadequately, trying to hit his head against the floor”, the airline representative added.
Russian Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk said the man was handed over to transport police upon touchdown in Novosibirsk. He has reportedly been handed a fine for his antisocial antics.
Problems caused by intoxicated passengers have risen in recent years, prompting airlines to take stronger action to curb drunkeness on flights.
Last year, the British government-backed One Too Many campaign was rolled out across nine UK airports, with the airline industry warning that drunk passengers could face fines of up to £80,000 if a plane has to be diverted because of disruptive behaviour.
