Seven-hour drama as flyer on Air India’s US-Mumbai flight has panic attack, screams & shouts

MUMBAI: A senior citizen travelling business class with his wife on a packed Air India flight from Newark to Mumbai on Wednesday suffered an anxiety attack three hours in that left him screaming and shouting intermittently for close to seven hours, even as cabin crew and passengers on board tried to pacify and restrain him, said a witness on the flight.

"He was about 6 ft tall, probably in his seventies, and appeared to be physically fit...He swung between bouts of calm and rage. He was verbally abusive and on three separate occasions during the episode, he tried to strangle his rather frail-looking wife. Passengers and crew rushed in and restrained him...It was a harrowing flight," said Pravin Tonsekar, a business class passenger who witnessed the incident. The man calmed down only after a doctor on board administered him sedatives.
Air India did not comment on the incident. In the recent past, AI international flights, especially to the US, have been witnessing a rise in unruly passenger incidents, though most such cases involved inebriated passengers.
AI crew tried to engage flyer in conversation to calm him
The latest instance of an unruly passenger on flight, where a passenger experienced an anxiety attack, occurred on Air India flight AI-144, which departed Newark for Mumbai at around 12.20 pm local time.
The aircraft cabin was calm for about three hours. Pravin Tonsekar, seated on 9 K in the business class, said he then saw the senior citizen who was seated on 14 K arguing with a flight attendant.
"He was about 6 ft tall, probably in his seventies, and he appeared to be physically fit. Then, all of a sudden, he started to scream, yell and shout in panic, saying he wanted to disembark. He was screaming for the aircraft door to be opened so that he could leave. He kept on screaming, 'Stop, open the door' and then when that didn't work, he started hurling verbal abuses at the crew," Tonsekar said.
"His wife, who is about five feet tall, too bore the brunt of his rage. When we saw him grip her neck as if to strangle her, the crew and passengers rushed in and physically restrained him," he added. The panicked passenger's wife was so scared that she moved from the business class and hid in the economy class for some time.
The tirade of abuse and the panic attack went on for close to seven hours, the eyewitness added. "It was an extremely trying situation for the crew. Even the second batch of crew, whose duty time hadn't started yet and so were in plain clothes, tried to engage the passenger in conservation and calm him down," he said.
By this time, two doctors who were on board had responded to the crew's call for help. "The unruly passenger was restrained and administered sedatives by the doctors. His wife told them that he had skipped the anxiety medication which he was supposed to have after take-off," the passenger said. Thereafter, the flight progressed smoothly and landed in Mumbai at around noon on Thursday.
"The captain of the Air India flight made an announcement on the public address system to thank the two doctors, Dr Venugopal and Dr Patel, for their services," said Tonsekar.
"The Air India crew did an exceptional job. Dinesh Gopalkrishnan, Reagan Dsa, Vimal Morawala, Sanjana, Ashwini Gandharwar, Prashant Sonar, Baby Jamaluddin and Pallavi Jadhav - the crew members, that is - bore the brunt for close to seven hours. But they ensured the flight didn't need to be diverted and despite all this, provided timely service to other passengers. Air India must felicitate them and appreciate their handling of the situation," Tonsekar said.