NEW YORK — A rowdy passenger was restrained mid-air Thursday night after disturbing his flight from Iceland to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Guðjón Arngrímsson, airline vice president of corporate communication, said the man was so unruly several passengers were forced to assist flight attendants.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Scarlett Blotting, an attendant on the flight. “He drank an entire bottle of duty free licorice spirit Topaz and then went berserk. One minute he was singing some unintelligible song and the next he was screaming, ‘this plane is going to crash!’”
The Icelandair flight was not equipped with restraining devices or stun guns, so attendants and passengers were forced to get creative.
“I had a lot of wrapping paper and Scotch Duct Tape in my carry-on from celebrating Christmas in Iceland,” said Margaret Miller. “So when I saw the gentleman acting wild and aggressive I offered the flight attendant my supplies.”
Jilian Haysworth is the flight attendant responsible for gift-wrapping the crazed passenger. “I was just doing my civic duty,” Haysworth said. “To be honest, I think I could have done a better job. I just threw tape all over him and barely even paid attention to curling the ribbon.”
This erratic passenger, whose name has yet to be released, commented about the incident this morning via Facebook. “I can’t believe Icelandair is accusing me of threatening to crash the plane. They were playing the movie Castaway on the flight for God’s sake! I was just reciting the lines aloud for fun.”
Scotch Tape spokesperson, Ted Lee, also made a comment on Twitter today. “The Scotch team sends their best wishes to Icelandair passengers. We’re so glad everyone is safe thanks to the resilience and durability of Scotch products.”
