by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 10:00 AM ET, Tue August 7, 2018
An off-duty pilot who was traveling as a passenger on an Emirates flight from Madrid to Dubai threatened to blow up the plane, claiming he was carrying explosives.
The man, who was not an Emirates pilot, is now on trial in Dubai, where the details of the June 1 in-flight incident are emerging.
According to Gulf News, the individual was drunk and had begun causing trouble even before the flight took off. The man, 27, began by asking a flight attendant whether smoking was allowed on the aircraft.
Not long after that, he started cursing flyers, and insulted and assaulted the flight attendant, including grabbing two beers without crew members' permission.
"He would call for us and was insulting," the flight attendant testified in court, according to a report in The Points Guy. The attendant added that the man slapped her chest and threw his shoe at her.
After he grabbed the beers and more liquor from the plane's galley, the man began banging on the door of an occupied restroom. When crewmembers tried to calm him down, the man became rude and aggressive. Eventually, a flight attendant and a fellow passenger worked together to restrain the man with handcuffs.
The incident didn't end there however.
While restrained the man issued a series of threats and became increasingly violent, banging his head so hard against a seat entertainment unit and window that its tv screen broke.
"He also threatened to kill me…and claimed that he would blow up the plane because he was carrying explosives," the flight attendant said.
The man threatened to chase the flight attendant to her house, where he would murder her.
Ultimately, the man caused about $2722 worth of damage to the Emirates plane. Once the plane landed at Dubai International Airport he was taken into custody by police. The man, whose name has not been revealed in media reports, pled guilty in court.
Prosecutors have charged him with getting drunk, behaving rowdily on-board an aircraft and threatening its safety and that of the passengers, Gulf News reported. He was also charged with threatening to kill the flight attendant and causing thousands of dollars in damage to Emirates' property.
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