This article is from page 13 of the 2006-04-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
AN Ennis man has told of the flight of fear he endured, while sitting next to an enraged passenger trying to break a window on their plane.
Seán Morgan (30) was flying from Warsaw to Shannon with his Polish wife Ewa and two-yearold son Leon, when drunk Szezepan Drzewiecki went into a blind rage.
Ewa and Leon were left in state of panic, while Seán tried to calm Drzewiecki, before he could do serious harm. Drzewiecki had drunk almost a litre of vodka.
The Morgans were returning from a two-week holiday in Poland when mid-air nightmare began.
Sean – who described Drzewiecki as a “time bomb” told The Clare People that the commotion started when they were boarding, but terror erupted during the flight.
Drzewiecki who had never been on a plane previously, first came to Seán’s attention when he spoke to another passenger.
“He was in his face a lot, leaning in on top of him. He then stood up, put on his jacket, took it off again,” he said.
“He started drinking and pounding the man beside him, smacking him on his face and then he went for another guy who was sitting on the inside seat on his row,” he said.
At that stage Seán intervened, and using the best Polish he had acquired, tried to calm Drzewiecki down.
“He settled for a minute, but then started swearing and shouting. Somebody had to take control of it. I told him there were other passengers, mothers and young kids, on the plane,” he said.
“Then, out of nowhere, he just flipped and pushed the seat in front of him, at which stage he started to punch the windows. He completely lost the plot,” he said.
Seán and a number of other passengers restrained him and in the process Drzewiecki sustained a nasty eye injury.
“Between the injury and the alcohol he lay there in a state,” he said.
Seán said while the incident was a hugely distressing for everybody, he would have no fears flying again.
“I felt a bit frightened but felt in control of the situation. It was a nightmare because everyone on the plane was in a serious state of shock and panic. It is the last thing you would expect,” he said.
He said if he did not intervene, Drzewiecki might have assaulted other passengers.
“If I had not taken action, he would have gone loose,” he said.