A drunken Sri Lankan cricketer caused panic on a packed British Airways passenger flight when he tried to open the cabin door at 35,000ft.
In his stupor he tugged away for up to two minutes at the exterior door before telling BA cabin crew on board the packed Boeing 777 that he had mistaken it for the toilet.
The incident alarmed eye-witnesses among the 229 passengers on board flight BA 2158 as the Sri Lankan cricket team flew back high over the Atlantic ocean from St Lucia to London Gatwick after playing against the West Indies in the Tri Nations Tour. The team had boarded in Grenada for the overnight flight which stopped over in St Lucia before landing at Gatwick just before 8am Monday.
The incident alarmed eye-witnesses among the 229 passengers on board flight BA 2158 as the Sri Lankan cricket team flew back high over the Atlantic ocean from St Lucia to London Gatwick after playing against the West Indies in the Tri Nations Tour. The team had boarded in Grenada for the overnight flight which stopped over in St Lucia before landing at Gatwick just before 8am Monday.
Witness Charlene Francis, 26, from Willesden in London was just feet away from the unfolding drama with her one year-old daughter ‘TJ’, her mother Linda and sleeping brother Kevin, when the incident happened in economy class about six hours into an eight hour flight from St Lucia to London’s Gatwick Airport.
The recruitment consultant who is on maternity leave said: ‘It was pretty frightening. I’m a nervous flyer anyway but things had been fine until then. I was awake. My daughter had been crying. So I saw everything.’ She said the man wrestling with the door was among a group of cricket players wearing the blue Sri Lankan polo-shirt team uniform with their country’s name in yellow lettering.
‘Suddenly he came over and tried to open the cabin door several times. It went on for a few minutes. He was pulling quite heavily.'
‘Suddenly he came over and tried to open the cabin door several times. It went on for a few minutes. He was pulling quite heavily.'
‘The BA flight attendants came running down the aisle and tried to calm him down. He seemed quite disoriented. At one stage he was leaning against my daughters cot.’
She heard the man tell cabin crew that he had been looking for the toilet - an account confirmed by BA.
Mrs Francis said: ‘It was very scary. He looked very dazed or drunk. He was very tall and wearing black and red ‘Dre’ headphones. ‘He had a blue polo shirt and the team logo along with his team-mates.
She heard the man tell cabin crew that he had been looking for the toilet - an account confirmed by BA.
Mrs Francis said: ‘It was very scary. He looked very dazed or drunk. He was very tall and wearing black and red ‘Dre’ headphones. ‘He had a blue polo shirt and the team logo along with his team-mates.
‘Some of his team-mates were shouting and telling him to stop. I was just a few feet away. My mum was really upset. Thank goodness he was stopped.
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