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Two men were restrained aboard a Virgin Australia flight to Doha after allegedly making threats and assaulting passengers and crew.
According to media reports, the two passengers on board VA7 from Melbourne to Doha on Friday were allegedly “headbutting and spitting on flight attendants” and claiming they had a gun, and “six or seven men each” were needed to subdue and restrain them until the flight could land.
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“We can confirm that two male passengers were involved in a physical altercation on board flight VA7 from Melbourne to Doha, operated by Qatar Airways. Both passengers were restrained and, upon arrival in Doha, were handed over to local authorities,” a Qatar Airways spokesperson said.
“The safety and wellbeing of our crew and passengers remain our highest priority.”
Witnesses to the alleged incident told 3AW’s Jacqui Felgate that there was a “big round of applause” for Qatari police when they arrived to arrest the men after landing.
“These guys were completely agitated and aggressive. Really big props to the Qatar flight attendants, they were hands on for about 10 hours straight and I saw a couple of them get physically abused. They really couldn’t do too much more,” one witness said.
“Only thing would love to understand is if these people are coming back into Australia – given the language they were screaming about wanting [to] hurt and shoot people, they really shouldn’t be allowed back in.”
Another witness said the men’s alleged treatment of the flight attendants was “terrifying and disgraceful”.
“My 63yo mum was sitting next to these men and she was texting us from the plane wi-fi as it was escalating,” the witness told 3AW.
“Kudos to a ‘lovely [man] called James’ who jumped across my mum to restrain one of the men once they started to escalate.
“Apparently the men were shouting that they had a gun and required 6-7 men each to restrain them in the galley until they could land.”
Virgin Australia resumed its wet-leased Qatar Airways Doha services from Sydney and Melbourne in June after they were suspended due to the Iran conflict. Brisbane and Perth services to Doha are slated to resume in December.
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