Brave passengers subdued a deranged man who assaulted a flight attendant and attempted to open emergency doors mid-air.
The terrifying incident occurred on Tel Aviv to London flight on Monday, which was abruptly diverted to Belgrade, Serbia for an emergency landing.
Victor Troboloni, a 45-year-old plane engineer from Albania, took immediate action when the perpetrator made a frenzied attempt to open the emergency doors and lunge at a male flight attendant, as reported by The Sun.
In a dramatic scene captured on video by a fellow passenger, Troboloni skillfully take down the unruly individual in a head lock and pinning him to the floor of the Wizz Air aircraft. The crew then hastily secured the assailant’s arms with cable ties.
The footage from the dimly lit cabin shows Troboloni wearing a baseball cap and engaged in a fierce struggle with the attacker in the aisle while fellow passengers help subdue the threat.
Shouts of “shut up” can be heard amidst the chaotic scuffle, along with disturbing screams from the assailant.
According to Troboloni, “He tried to open the fire exit, he was sitting at the back and it’s easy to open a fire exit, just pull the handle and that’s it.”
The brave passenger said that the man was a “heavyweight,” but he held him down for 10 minutes until the man was tired and out of breath enough to allow flight attendants to zip tie him.
Troboloni said that the attacker repeatedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” throughout the ordeal, although it was not captured in the video.
He also revealed that he had noticed the assailant exhibiting suspicious behavior throughout the flight, continuously pacing back and forth from the gangway to the pilot’s cabin, and meticulously inspecting seat numbers.
Following the successful intervention, the group of passengers carefully relocated the tied-up attacker to a designated area of the aisle for the remainder of the flight, which necessitated the emergency landing in Belgrade around an hour later.
Troboloni was shaken by the entire ordeal. “So I know what’s going on midair … you’ve got no escape,” he remarked. “It was a very scary situation.”
