{"id":73532,"date":"2026-08-17T03:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T03:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73532\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T03:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T03:38:35","slug":"melbourne-man-asked-to-help-restrain-violent-passenger-on-long-haul-flight-to-abu-dhabi-blasts-etihads-shocking-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73532\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne man asked to help restrain violent passenger on long haul flight to Abu Dhabi blasts Etihad’s ‘shocking’ response"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Melbourne man who was asked by Etihad cabin crew to help restrain a violent passenger has hit out at the airline over its response to the ordeal.<\/p>\n

Ethan Watts and his partner Emily Cornwall were on the first leg of their 24-hour journey to London when the chaos unfolded on flight EY461 from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi on May 18.<\/p>\n

Mr Watts said he and three other men were approached by cabin crew, who told them a passenger at the back of the plane was refusing to cooperate.<\/p>\n

“‘Oh, there’s a situation arising at the back of the plane\u2026 if we could, are we able to call on you and are you able to help?'” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Foreign<\/p>\n

“I said: ‘Yeah, I mean, of course – not thinking much of it, to be honest. About a minute later, she actually came up and said: ‘Oh it’s actually escalating, do you mind jumping back and, and helping?'”<\/p>\n

Mr Watts said the passenger’s behaviour then escalated.<\/p>\n

“He ended up grabbing someone by the collar, trying to shake them down. Me and the three other guys pretty much had to restrain him and tie him to one of the chairs,” he said.<\/p>\n

The struggle continued for three hours before Mr Watts was told he could return to his seat.<\/p>\n

But his ordeal was far from over.<\/p>\n

Cabin crew attempted to move the man, who wriggled free and ran down the plane.<\/p>\n

“He was then tackled. I had to run up the aisle and assist with the tackle and that’s when he ended up biting a chunk out of one of the guys’ arms,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Pretty gruesome stuff, I was pretty shocked.”<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was asked to provide a written statement for police, which he gave to a staff member.<\/p>\n

His partner Emily Cornwall said she was left in the dark about what was happening at the back of the plane.<\/p>\n

“I’d just heard it was chaos, like there was just screaming, which was obviously worrying to hear when your partner’s down there and you haven’t had an update in a few hours,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Incredibly<\/p>\n

A woman from the back row of the plane was then put in Mr Watts’ seat for the remainder of the flight.<\/p>\n

By the time the couple arrived at Abu Dhabi, they were sleep deprived and rushing to their connecting flight.<\/p>\n

They said they were left frustrated by Etihad’s response after they sought a form of compensation for the ordeal.<\/p>\n

Ms Cornwall lodged a complaint for the pair through their travel agent, and said they did not hear back for at least three weeks.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t receive any communication from them until we actually landed back in Melbourne. They were uncontactable, pretty much the whole time that we were away,” she told News24.<\/p>\n

“For such a serious complaint, it’s so shocking that it was handled that way – borderline not even being handled at all.”<\/p>\n

After providing the pair with a case number, Etihad offered them a choice of a $50USD credit voucher or 5,000 Etihad guest miles – which they were only able to access through a portal.<\/p>\n

The couple said that the only direct contact they have had with an airline staff since has been via a no-reply email.<\/p>\n

“I thought they’re a big enough company to be able to provide more than a $50 Etihad money voucher for such a massive incident,” Ms Cornwall said.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018HeWhat are passengers entitled to?<\/p>\n

Shine Lawyers Senior Associate Amelia Feachnie said incidents on international flights can create jurisdictional challenges when it comes to compensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The aircraft has the duty of care to ensure you are physically safe while you are on that flight,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If there is any negligence that takes place where you do end up physically injured then there is legislation that responds to that.”<\/p>\n

News24 Aviation Expert Captain Byron Bailey, a former Emirates pilot, said more should be done to ensure airlines have crew capable of dealing with incidents involving disruptive passengers.<\/p>\n

“In this day and age when you get a lot of drunk people on flights and they tend to lose inhibitions. I’ve always been of the opinion that having a physically imposing cabin services director is very helpful,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Big<\/p>\n

Captain Byron Bailey said a thank you letter from the airline and an offer of an upgrade “would go well”.<\/p>\n

“The guy did his civic duty because he helped restrain the guy,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Feachnie said commercial compensation is ultimately a matter for the airline.<\/p>\n

“That’s something that is private enterprise, and would be a decision based on what airline you’re flying with,” she said.<\/p>\n

The Civil Aviation Authority issued 73 aviation infringement notices for disorderly or disruptive behaviour in the last financial year.<\/p>\n

Under CASA regulations, passengers are legally obliged to obey the directions of the cabin crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n

News24 has contacted Etihad Airways multiple times for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne man who was asked by Etihad cabin crew to help restrain a violent passenger has hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2419,105204,260],"class_list":["post-73532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-etihad","tag-melbourne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}