Passengers on a British Airways flight to the Caribbean who witnessed a man smash a wine bottle and stab a fellow passenger have slammed the airline for providing him with ‘unlimited’ alcohol and failing to intervene when he ‘harassed women’ onboard.
Shaken onlookers claimed a large group of men spent hours ‘loudly partying with an endless supply of alcohol’ provided by BA staff, as well as approaching multiple female passengers, whom they harassed or ‘grabbed’, before the incident.
Shocking footage shows the moment flight BA2159 from Gatwick to St Lucia descended into chaos as a brawl broke out between several passengers around an hour and 20 minutes from touchdown.
Those onboard have said BA staff ‘did not intervene’ and ‘poured fuel on the fire’ by ‘ignoring’ rowdy behaviour in the run up to the assault, and claimed people on the plane were unable to use the bathroom for several hours.
As a row escalated into a physical altercation, two passengers are said to have suffered injuries from the broken glass, but the pilots had no option but to continue on to the island’s Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort.
According to the St Lucia Times, the brawl kicked off when one passenger, who had been arguing back and forth with another man on the flight, snapped and stormed to the kitchen area of the Boeing 777 jet.
The aggressor, a man from St Lucia wearing a bucket hat and spectacles, is said to have smashed a bottle in the galley, spraying shards of glass throughout the food preparation area, before beelining back up the gangway and plunging the jagged edges of the bottle into his foe.
But passengers recounted how he was one of a group of men who blockaded access to the bathroom and ‘partied’ for hours.
One woman said: ‘The main aggressor was behaving terribly in the lead up to the incident, the BA staff were perhaps too intimidated to regain control but the atmosphere was clearly leading to some kind of incident.
‘A handful of men were lingering at the back of plane for hours, loudly partying with an endless supply of alcohol provided by the BA staff.
‘They approached numerous women on the flight, myself and a fellow passenger were grabbed by the arm when we passed by and pulled back as they tried to engage us.
‘Staff saw this and did not intervene, contributing to the escalating atmosphere. Hours passed with women unable to access the loos.’
A second woman, who was sat in the same cabin where the attack unfolded, claimed BA staff ‘ignored’ the group as they were ‘harassing female passengers’, leaving them in tears.
She said: ‘The man who perpetrated the assaults was approaching lone women on the flight trying to chat them up, he told me both his parents had just died so he’s got a house now on St Lucia and was offering to be the tour guide.
‘[He was] touching my arm and generally making me feel very uncomfortable.
Paramedics and three police officers then boarded the plane to take the injured passengers to hospital, and police removed the man from the plane.
Passenger Nichola Pierre said: ‘I was on board this flight and these guys were drinking and giving jokes with each other before this occurred.
‘One man got stabbed in the torso and the other guy in the back of the head before another gentleman and myself were able to calm down this guy who purchased a duty free wine bottle which he used to commit the act.
‘Thankfully, the escalated situation was dealt with swiftly and normalcy was maintained.’
Another source told The Sun: ‘It was a truly frightening experience for the crowded passengers. There was a lot of understandable upset.
‘The men were arguing throughout the flight after take-off from Gatwick airport.
‘The row turned into pushing and shoving then things suddenly got really nasty.
