Experience: I stopped a man from crashing our plane

"While exit doors can't be opened when a plane is at full altitude because the air pressure inside is too great, levels dip during descent, and it is possible to open them. I feared that if he opened the exit, the plane would be hard to control and we might hit the ground about 300mph faster than we were meant to."

"The guy was struggling hard. I resorted to pinning him down with my shin A woman in the exit aisle was struggling with him, but she couldn't stop him. I sprinted down and barged my shoulder into his chest, knocking him over. As he collapsed, the smaller man got hold of his shoulder and we dragged him to the floor."

"With a third man, we managed to hold the big guy down. His eyes were roving all around and he was breathing as if he was sprinting. He was clearly having a panic attack. I wasn't worried about his intentions: I thought that if he had wanted to kill us all, he would have gone about it a lot more methodically."

A passenger returning from a literary festival on a Ryanair flight heard shouting as the plane descended into London Stansted. A large, powerful man burst toward an emergency exit and lunged for the door handle while a companion shouted that the incident was not terrorism but related to mental health. Cabin pressure drops during descent, so an exit can be opened and could destabilize the aircraft. Fellow passengers and a crew member intervened, pinned the man down and restrained him with assistance from two others. Observers noted rapid breathing and roving eyes consistent with a panic attack; the situation was contained and the aisle remained clear.

Read at www.theguardian.com