West Sussex: Passengers of a British low-cost airline carrier had a terrifying experience during their flight to Venice, Italy, when a co-passenger screamed ‘Allahu Akbar,’ ‘death is coming’ and ‘we will die’ over and over again during the two-hour journey.
According to a report in Daily Mail, the man screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ 29 times, ‘death is coming’ 17 times, and ‘we will die’ nine times. The man also kicked and thrashed about on his seat, a few passengers of the EasyJet plane flying to Venice from Crawley in West Sussex, said.
Passengers were terrified fearing it to be a terror attack but later noticed that the man was in handcuffs and was being guarded by officials of the Home Office – the government department responsible for immigration and counter-terrorism.
“It was really scary. I felt threatened. I was tearful. The worst-case scenario was that we weren’t going to get off that plane alive because we didn’t know who the person was, what the circumstances were or anything. There was nothing explained to us. It was very daunting. We didn’t know whether he came from a group of terrorists, or anything along those lines,” Terence O’Sullivan, a passenger who was sitting only five rows in front of the man, said.
The unidentified man was an illegal immigrant of the African origin and was being deported to Italy. He was taken away by the Italian police as soon as the plane landed in Venice.
The airline later apologised to the passengers for the “distressing” incident and said it has taken up the issue with the Home Office.
