A drunk man on a plane was no match for a Canadian hockey team. The drunk Ontario man attempted to storm the cockpit and strangle the flight crew on a plane heading to Toronto. Luckily the hockey team which took him down was comprised of off-duty police officers.
"The crew was quite surprised when we told them there were 17 police officers on the flight," Les Baylis, a Halton Police constable and member of Justice Hockey Canada told the National Post. The recreational team is made up of Ontario police officers.
The flight crew gave credit to the team for averting an emergency landing. The incident took place on a LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Toronto on Nov. 11. The hockey team happened to be on board as they were returning from the Czech National Police Hockey Championships.
While the Boeing 767 was over the Atlantic Ocean, a first class passenger, Henryk Glowala, suddenly became outraged when he was denied any more alcohol. The passenger started to pound the cockpit door but he then turned on the rest of the crew. When a female flight attendant tried to calm him down, he assaulted her. He then cornered another flight attendant in the galley in the back of the plane and took off his belt.
The flight attendants didn't know the hockey team was on board but they happened to approach the goalie, Kyle Talsma as he was one of the biggest men on board at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds.
"Myself and the guy sitting beside me, we made our way to the back and saw the guy with his belt around the steward's throat trying to choke him out," Talsma, a detective constable with Halton Police told the National Post.
"At that point we took physical control of him," he said. "We had to pretty much maintain physical control of him for the last 3.5 hours of the flight. He got really worked up; lots of threats, trying to headbutt officers, punch officers, yelling and screaming."
Talsma said the unruly man would calm down for a few minutes but would start up again after a few minutes.
"In the last hour, when we started our descent into Pearson he got really worked up; lots of threats, trying to headbutt officers, punch officers, yelling and screaming at people passing - just unpleasant," he said.
The team was able to bound the Glowala to a row of seats in the back of the plane using seatbelts.
"I cinched a seatbelt around his waist and then used the outboard seatbelts to secure his hands. ... They didn't have any zip ties or handcuffs on board," said Mr. Baylis, who assisted in monitoring the irate flier."He was raging and screaming, threatening to hit guys, he was out of control."
Once the plane landed at Pearson International Airport, two Peel Regional Police officers boarded the aircraft as escorted the man off in handcuffs.
When the plane touched down at Pearson International Airport, two tactical officers with Peel Regional Police were already on hand to board the aircraft and haul the man away in handcuffs.
Glowala was charged with assault, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and endangering the safety of an aircraft.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
