There was chaos on board a Siberia Airlines aka S7 Airlines plane traveling from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk, Russia, because of a male passenger. An unnamed 47-year-old man caused havoc when he allegedly sexually assaulted a female co-passenger, tried to "strangle" other women, fought men and grabbed a baby by the neck on board.
According to The Sun, the violent and fouled-mouth passenger strolled through the aisle of the plane attacking passengers in the flight with no reason. He targeted terrified women, abused them and attacked them, passengers and police said. It is yet to be known when the incident took place but it was first reported on March 1.
The man was eventually overpowered by the male passengers on board and the crew managed to constrain him with straps.
As reported by Express UK, Stanislav Semenov, a passenger on board recalled the horrifying incident and said, "A steward offered him a seat at the back but he kept walking up and down and started attacking passengers randomly and beating them. Then he took a seat next to a young woman and began to sexually harass her."
"He grabbed and pulled her hair, then he switched to a young man, saying something to him then punching and striking him with his elbow. Then he went and took a seat next to another young man, and a little girl was sitting in the front, so he moved forward and grabbed her neck," he said.
He went on to explain, "Next he went to the man who was sitting in front of me with a baby in his arms. He said to the baby 'Hi, little slut' - then tried to reach the child with his arms."
Semenov was also a victim of the man's assault, "Then he switched to me and said he would break my face, so I stood up, took off my glasses, and he attacked and hit me. I hit him in return - at this moment other men rushed to us and blocked him, pushing him down on a vacant seat. The steward ran up with some belts which we used to tie him until police could deal with him when we landed."
According to the Sun report, eyewitness Alexey Mamontov shared that the man punched and kicked other passengers and abused women. "He attacked young women and tried to strangle them, he banged the sides of the cabin and the windows. He was walking along the cabin and beating passengers. He came up to me and asked if I know him – I said no – so he punched me too."
The captain of the A320 Airbus requested for police help, and the man was arrested by armed police after the flight landed.
Irina Volk, a spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry, said that the act was not terrorism-related.
"The police station at the Tolmachevo airport received a message from the airline that several policemen were required to board the plane from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk due to the aggressive behaviour of one passenger," Volk said.
No passengers required medical assistance at the airport.
