British holidaymakers were horrified when a man tried to open the door of a packed jet at 30,000ft.
Passengers and crew wrestled the man to the floor of the easyJet plane after he began yanking at the emergency exit door of the Airbus A319.
The man, in his 30s, was forced into a seat and “boxed in” by other passengers, allowing the craft to safely touch down in Pisa, Italy on Wednesday.
Businessman Richard Conyard, 42, described how he noticed the man enter the toilet looking “a little nervous” and wearing a heavy coat.
“When he came out he went towards the emergency exit and grabbed the handle and tried to open the door," he told The Sun.
“One of the crew screamed at him to stop and other passengers started shouting and crying. Everyone was understandably very scared.
“A couple of guys went to help. I joined them. We bundled him into a seat,” said Mr Conyard, adding that all passengers had to stay in their seats upon landing until police arrived.
If the door had opened, the sudden decompression could have sucked passengers out of the plane and seen the cabin temperature plummet dangerously low, according to experts.
Easyjet confirmed that the captain of Flight EZY8233 from London Gatwick to Pisa had asked police to meet the aircraft owing to the “disruptive behaviour of a passenger onboard during the descent.”
Pisa Airport police said a man in his 30s from Siena, Italy had been questioned in connection with the incident.
