Police are investigating a bizarre and disturbing in-flight incident in which an unnamed 32-year-old man suddenly died after allegedly attempting to throttle a fellow passenger.
The assailant reportedly suffered cardiac arrest during the incident, having threatened passengers on the flight by yelling: “If you want to live, put up your hands. We are going to die – the pilots are asleep!”
The flight, an Airbus A320 operated by the Russian airline Red Wings, was headed from Moscow to Simferopol, a popular Black Sea resort area in Crimea. Just over half an hour into the flight, the pilot turned back to Moscow for an emergency landing because a violent ruckus had broken out aboard, Britain’s Daily Mirror reported.
Red Wings, based in Moscow Domodedovo Airport, provides both scheduled passenger and cargo charter services.
Reports say the man was screaming abuse, fighting men trying to restrain him and using a mobile phone to repeatedly clobber a male passenger over the head. It was not clear why he attacked the woman. Crew rescued her from the crazed would-be strangler and lashed the man to a seat, a witness said.
According to the Mirror, the attacker suddenly had a heart attack and collapsed, though accounts differ on when that occurred. A doctor on the flight managed to restart the man’s heart but the man was pronounced dead by paramedics shortly after landing.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the attacker may have sustained a head injury during the melee. Footage shot aboard includes audio of a man shouting in Russian “throw him out with a parachute!” and a shocked woman saying “A man just started going mad here. He has been hitting a woman. They have tied him up now.”
Written by Peter Needham
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