RUGBY player from Barrow sprung into action when a passenger aboard a flight to Dubai triggered panic on the anniversary of 9/11.

scott · September 25, 2013

BARROW RUGBY ACES TACKLE TERROR THREAT AIRLINE PASSENGER DURING FLIGHT

A RUGBY player from Barrow sprung into action when a passenger aboard a flight to Dubai triggered panic on the anniversary of 9/11.

Adam Nicholson, 24, of Walney, was on the Emirates flight from Bangkok as he returned from a tour of Australia with the British Amateur Rugby League Association Great Britain Lions on September 11.

Along with team-mates Trevor Penrose and Zac Johnson, the prop forward took action into his own hands after an unruly passenger became aggressive with staff and told the BARLA trio he would kill them after being refused more alcohol.

The lads took him to the ground, bound his hands and legs with tie-wraps, and fastened him until the aircraft landed in Dubai – where the offender was escorted away by waiting police.

Mr Nicholson, a Dalton RL player, said: “I grabbed his arms and the lads grabbed his legs and put him on the floor and he was shouting ‘I’m going to kill you all’ and pointing to his neck and waving his finger across it.

“We tied his legs and arms up and carried him to a seat and tied him up with special seatbelts and he was spitting and shouting ‘I’m going to kill you’. One of the women who was working there was crying and came up to us and said ‘thank you’ because he was poking her in the breast and shouting when she wouldn’t serve him another drink of alcohol.

“It was mad, and on 9/11 as well. I didn’t want to go down without a fight if anything was going to happen.”

Paul Crarey, BARLA head coach and Dalton coach, was at the other end of the plane. He said: “As the lads first got on the plane in Sydney, everyone said ‘you know what day it is lads, don’t you? It’s 9/11.

“So when this happened, it wasn’t nice, even though it wasn’t anything like that. The seatbelt signs came on and nobody really knew what was going on until we landed in Dubai.”

Millom Rugby League hooker Marcus O’Brien, 20, who was also aboard with Danny Morrow, of Walney, said: “He was getting quite aggressive and he began to get aggressive with the air stewardess as well. It was soon sorted, but it was a good job we were there because there were a lot of families on board as well.”