Amsterdam, Feb 21: An easyJet flight was grounded for two hours after a security alert was sparked when schoolchildren reported seeing a man writing Arabic in a notebook.
The students, who were aged 15 and 16, alerted cabin crew after spotting the man writing in what appeared to be Arabic script, while waiting for take off.
Technical support worker Adam Robson, 21, who was sat next to the man, said he first became aware of the issue when he felt kicking and banging on the back of his seat as one of the student's suffered a panic attack.
He said: 'The guy had a notebook and people were looking over at it as it had both Arabic writing and English words.
'One of the students called a flight attendant over and pointed it out,' said Mr Robson, from Newcastle's West End, who had been on a romantic weekend away with his girlfriend Lauren.
'She went away, but just as we were about to take off there was a kicking and banging on my seat from behind us and the student was having a panic attack.
'He went from the window seat into the aisle and ran to the back of the plane.
'The next think we know the pilot has come on and said for safety reasons we were going back to the terminal.'
Mr Robson said he and other passengers were kept aboard the aircraft as a number of the pupils and their luggage were taken off the aircraft - as temperatures in the cabin soared to 30 degrees.
'The attendants had to bring us cups of cold water because it was so hot,' he said.
Passenger Adam Robson, who was sitting next to the man on the flight which took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, said he 'was harmless'. He said the man was an Iranian masters student at Teesside University and had been in Amsterdam visiting his wife
The flight, on Monday, eventually took off, with Mr Robson chatting to the man, who he said seemed 'completely harmless'.
'It turns out he was an Iranian masters student at Teesside University and the reason he was in Amsterdam was because his wife was studying there as she'd been unable to transfer to a North East university.
'He makes the trips regularly and he said he always carries his notebook, which he showed me. It had some Arabic, but the further through you went the more English it had as he had written down sections of newspapers and was using it to teach himself more of the language, he said.
Comments
Add new comment