An international flight was forced to divert after a passenger tried to open a door at 38,000 feet – so he could have a smoke.
Officials said that Sunday’s Vancouver-bound Lufthansa flight was forced to divert from Munich to Hamburg where the passenger, who had been behaving increasingly erratically, was removed.
And Hamburg police confirmed that a rescue crew, including a doctor, met the man and diagnosed him with a mental disorder.
He was taken to a local psychiatric facility. There has been no active police investigation into the incident.
Passenger Dan Iosch, from Vancouver, told cbcnews : “It was reported that there was a man in the back of the plane screaming and yelling and apparently tried to open the back door of the aircraft at 38,000 feet.””Apparently at the beginning of the flight he was being a little difficult, but they decided to take off,” he continued.
“I guess once we got in the air he got more and more agitated and he tried to light up a cigarette. He was yelling and screaming.”
The man was then forcefully escorted from the Airbus A340-600 by paramedics and other officials.
The flight’s arrival in Vancouver was delayed by three hours.
