Woman 'who stripped to underwear and tried to storm Jet2 cockpit' is restrained by hero dad

14 August 2022, 13:26

A dad has been hailed a hero after he restrained a woman who had allegedly stripped to her underwear and tried to storm the cockpit of a Jet2 plane shouting "Allahu Akbar".

Phillip O'Brien, 35, got the woman in a hold and helped crew members secure her in a chair on the Jet2 flight from Cyprus to Manchester in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The woman in her 30s had alleged explosives were on board and asked the children she was with if they were "ready to die", the Mirror reports.

She also told the terrified passengers and staff that her parents were members of terror group ISIS, witnesses said.

Mr O'Brien, a drainage firm boss, was on board the flight with six of his family members, including his wife and three children aged eight to 14.

He told the newspaper everyone was "sh**ing themselves" when the chaotic scene unfolded.

""Everything was normal and then shortly after take-off a woman walked up the aisle naked and banged on the cockpit door shouting 'Allahu Akbar'," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

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"As you can imagine everyone was sh**ing themselves."

He said staff told him they were not allowed to restrain her, so he took matters into his own hands and tackled her to the ground.

Mr O'Brien said he asked the woman why she was saying such things and she replied: "If I didn't there's going to be an explosion and everybody is going to die".

The pilot then did an emergency landing at Paris, where the woman was pictured being taken off the plane by officers.

One woman who was on the flight told MailOnline that the woman's behaviour had left her daughter terrified.

"I was more worried about my daughter - she was so scared, she had a massive panic attack. You were just terrified of what she as going to do when you closed your eyes," she is quoted as saying.

The Mirror reports that Jet2 confirmed the flight was diverted to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport early Tuesday morning so that a "disruptive passenger" could be "offloaded".

The airline told The Sun: “We can confirm that flight LS944 from Larnaca to Manchester was unfortunately diverted to Charles De Gaulle Airport in the early hours of Tuesday morning so that a disruptive passenger could be offloaded.

"As a family friendly airline, we would like to thank our highly trained crew for their professional handling of this very difficult situation, and we would also like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience or upset that this caused.”