A passenger wrecked havoc on a flight in Russia by sexually assaulting a young woman, trying to ‘strangle’ several other females and grabbing a child by the neck.
The unnamed 47-year-old also punched and kicked male passengers and at one point sought to attack a baby on the domestic Siberian Airlines flight from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk.
The violent, foul-mouthed man strode up and down the cabin randomly lashing out at travellers, then sitting down next to them – including terrified women, abusing them and making unprovoked attacks, said passengers and police.
Attack: Video from on-board shows the man being overpowered by fellow passengers after sexually harassing women, attacking children and fighting
The crazed economy class passenger even tried to undress himself in front of shocked and scared travellers, removing his top.
Eventually passengers overpowered him – as seen from an on board video – and crew members constrained him with straps.
Passenger Stanislav Semenov said: ‘A man on board became violent. His seat was somewhere in the front of the cabin.
‘I was on the 20th row. At first, he began just to walk here and there, swearing all the time, disturbing passengers with questions and being abusive….
‘A steward offered him a seat at the back but he kept walking up and down, and started attacking passengers randomly and beating them.
Shocking: The violent, foul-mouthed man also reportedly grabbed a child by the neck and sought to attack a baby in mid-air
Violent: He also fought with several other passengers, swore and tried to undress on the plane
In detention: Once the plane had landed in Novosibirsk, he was arrested by police
‘It was the same – he asked something and swore and punched another passenger.
‘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 forwards and grabbed her neck.
Irina Volk, spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry, said the incident was not terrorism related
‘At that moment a steward jumped on him and pushed him away, trying to become a new target for him.
‘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 sl**” – then tried to reach the child with his arms.
‘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.’
Another passenger Alexey Mamontov said the man threw punches and kicked other passengers.
‘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.
‘A steward tried to push him away, then he punched another man and finally several men joined in and we managed to make force him down on a vacant seat.
‘He was particularly abusing women. He used abusive words, tried to strangle several young women’.
Lashing out: The man is showed in detention at the airport after being arrested
At one point the man was shouting about ‘Olympic gold medals’.
Armed police came on board the A320 Airbus to detain the man when the four hour flight S7-3338 landed in Novosibirsk, saidThe disturbing air incident on the packed plane with 150 passengers was not terrorism related, Ms Volk said.
It is understood no passengers received medical assistance at the airport.
Ms Volk said: ‘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.’
Later the man went berserk in a police cell at Novosibirsk’s Tolmachevo airport, banging on his cell, and taking off his shirt.
Passengers said they did not believe the man was drunk, and the airline does not offer alcohol in economy class on this route.
He was later taken under armed guard by ambulance for medical checks.