A BRIT passenger was put in a chokehold by other flyers after he allegedly got drunk and became abusive to the cabin crew.
Footage showed the dramatic scenes on the JetBlue flight from Gatwick Airport to New York JFK.
Four men stepped in to help the airline staff who were struggling to get the disgruntled passenger to calm down.
One could be seen holding him around the neck to try and restrain him, but he tries to wriggle free.
A woman, thought to be the man’s girlfriend, asked the man holding him to remove his finger from near his eye.
She called him “Ben” and said: “Please get that off of his face.”
He replied: “I can’t just leave him.”
She adds: “No, no, no listen, don’t tell me to stop.”
A fellow flyer tells her: “Move back now.”
She responds: “Ben, Ben stop fighting them. Stop fighting them.”
As the man attempts to escape from them, one declares: “Right take him down.”
The woman can be heard saying: “No,” and starts sobbing.
The group manage to restrain him and then move him down the plane aisle where two cabin crew members are.
One passenger exclaims: “Jesus Christ.”
While another said: “What the f***.”
One man appears to try and reassure a child adding: “Don’t worry I’m right here.”
The flight took off from Gatwick at 11.55am and arrived on time at 3.15pm on Tuesday.
Another Brit, Grant Saunders, who works as a hypnotist, was on the flight.
He said: “The men from the back of the plane came down to assist.
“They eventually tackled him to the floor.
“I felt sorry for elderly couples who were sitting around where it was happening.
“The lads got a round of applause as they left.”
He claimed: “The man was drunk and was getting loud and aggressive, moving seats.
“Then when the crew asked him to calm down, he started getting worse.
“Then he started wandering about the aisle, the crew asked him to sit in his seat and he then started getting aggressive.”
Another passenger, called Nick, said: “They managed to restrain him and prevent the flight from being diverted and causing major disruption to the passengers and crew.
“Due to their brave and brilliant efforts, the flight landed without further incident.
“They need to be recognised by the airline.”
The Sun Online has approached JetBlue and Sussex Police for comment.
In a statement, the airline said: “On Tuesday, January 30, a customer on board flight 1926 with service from London to New York, began acting erratically and aggressively toward his travel companion and members of the inflight crew.
“The crew also discovered an opened bottle of liquor the customer had brought on board and indications of intoxication.
“For everyone’s safety, the customer was restrained with the assistance of other customers who were witnessing this threatening behavior.
“The flight landed safely at New York’s JFK Airport where it was met by law enforcement who took over the situation.”
It comes after an angry passenger was not only kicked off a plane for farting too much – but also bragged about the smell, it was claimed.
The man was removed from an American Airlines early evening flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Austin, Texas, after the unusual behaviour.
The chaos forced the aircraft to return to its gate and delayed by 15 to 30 minutes at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, someone on the flight said.
The Texas-based passenger wrote on Reddit: “I was on a direct American flight from Phoenix to Austin and I was seated near the row where this situation occurred.”
They added that stinky situation on January 14 was “kinda funny” and “somewhat entertaining” but nothing was filmed.
Read the full originally published story on The Sun