A Kenyan man broke into the cockpit of a packed British Airways jumbo aircraft en route to Nairobi yesterday, causing it to dive violently as he made for the controls.
Passengers screamed and prayed for their lives as the Boeing 747-400, with 398 people on board, reeled and plunged while the air crew wrestled with the man, described as "hysterical" by one passenger.
A passenger revealed how the pilot had later explained that if the struggle had lasted another few seconds, the co-pilot would have been unable to regain control as the airliner was about to flip upside-down.
"Suddenly the plane went into this violent, violent dive - like shuddering - and went very, very steeply downwards and everyone was woken up by this screaming - grown men basically screaming - and it was quite a violent situation," Mr Benjamin Goldsmith, a passenger, told Sky News by telephone from Nairobi, where the plane finally landed at 7.10 a.m. Irish time.
"Then the plane just stopped diving and went into another dive at a really weird angle, going down to the left . . . then the engine cut out altogether."
British Airways said the airliner's automatic pilot disengaged during the cockpit struggle, sending the plane into a series of violent manoeuvres. One crew member suffered a broken ankle and several passengers were slightly injured. Mr Goldsmith described how total silence descended on the plane for around 30 seconds after the crew, assisted by first-class passengers, had subdued the intruder and regained control. He said the pilot told passengers over the speakers that "a very nasty man just tried to kill us all".
"This was a scene of an aeroplane that was about to crash," said Mr Goldsmith. "The lights went out and the oxygen masks came down and the plane sort of regained control after what must have been about 20 or 30 seconds. This was pretty serious."
Capt William Hagan (53) was bitten on the ear and finger as he fought with a man who had seized the aircraft's controls.
As the struggle continued, passengers on the Gatwick to Nairobi flight screamed in terror as the Boeing 747 spiralled 10,000ft.
Capt Hagan and one of his co-pilots, Richard Webb (35), managed to get the intruder - a Kenyan national - out of the cockpit.
Police in Nairobi said the 27year-old man had been escorted to Nairobi Hospital for medical examination. His name was not revealed.
A police spokesman, Mr Dola Indidis, said: "Because of the circumstances, he will have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation."
British Airways said emergency services were on the ground when the aircraft arrived in Nairobi, and the intruder was arrested. A spokeswoman for the airline said some passengers had been taken to hospital in Nairobi. The passengers on board the Boeing 747 included Kenyan nationals returning home and Britons travelling on holiday.
Among those on board were Lady Annabel Goldsmith, widow of the businessman Sir James and mother of Benjamin Goldsmith, and her daughter Jemima Khan, wife of the former cricketer Imran Khan. Mrs Khan was travelling with her two children, Kasim (18 months) and Sulaiman (4).
BA, which has started an investigation into the incident, described Capt Hagan, from Glasgow, as one of its most experienced pilots. His wife and two children were on board the plane.