Husband takes his clothes off, tries to set a blanket on fire and screams ‘I will kill you all’ during row with his wife, causing flight to Bangkok to divert to India where soldiers drag him off the plane

• Six soldiers boarded to pull the man off the man after his outburst earlier today 

A man was hauled off a plane in India today after undressing, trying to set a blanket on fire and threatening to kill passengers during a row with his wife.

The 53-year-old German national, who has not been named, was pulled off an Airbus A380 by soldiers in New Delhi after the plane was forced to divert from its planned route of Munich to Bangkok in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Witnesses on board Lufthansa Flight LH772 said the drama unfolded suddenly after the man’s Thai wife told a member of staff she felt ‘threatened’ by her husband and asked for them to intervene just a few hours into the 10 hour 45 minutes journey.

In a bizarre flurry of outrage, the passenger started throwing food, tried to burn a blanket with a lighter, smashed his own phone and got undressed, witnesses said. ‘I’ll kill you all!’ he was reported to have said, ignoring instructions from the cabin crew.

As they neared India, the pilots told Indian air traffic control about a ‘situation with an unruly passenger’ and were promptly given permission to land at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in the Indian capital, where he was arrested.

Illustrative image shows an Airbus A380 jumbo airliner on a runway. Undated

The passengers were individually notified that the plane would be landing in India, with all monitors on the plane shut off ‘so that the rioters would not know that we were landing in New Delhi rather than Bangkok’, a source told Bild.

‘It was spooky,’ they said.

The Airbus arrived at New Delhi at 10:26pm local time on Tuesday and was taxied to the terminal. Passengers were told to remain seated and asked not to take photos or film the incident.

‘At that moment six soldiers came on board and escorted the man out of the plane,’ the passenger said.

The soldiers were part of the Central Industrial Security Force at the airport, Bild reported. 

Delhi Airport’s aviation security authority told Indian news agency ANI: ‘The reason for the quarrel between the man and the woman is not yet known, but the flight had to be diverted due to the quarrel between the man and the woman.’

A Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said that Lufthansa is now coordinating with the German Embassy regarding the passenger.

Lufthansa acknowledged in a statement that the flight had been diverted to Delhi due to an unruly passenger on board. 

‘On Wednesday, November [29], flight LH772 from Munich to Bangkok was diverted to Delhi due to an unruly passenger on board. 

‘The person in question was handed over to authorities. The flight to Bangkok is expected to continue subsequently with minor delays. 

‘Safety and security on board for our passengers and crew is our top priority,’ it said.

Flight trackers show the flight is scheduled to arrive in Thailand at 2:55pm local time tomorrow.

In March, a drunk US college student was arrested in India after he allegedly urinated on another passenger during an American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi.

Aryan Vohra, 21, was allegedly caught urinating on a fellow passenger while ‘heavily intoxicated’ on board the flight on Saturday night.

Vohra was arrested by police officers when the plane touched down in the capital and American Airlines imposed a ban on the college student from flying on any of its planes in the future, ANI reported.

The Indian national, who was travelling to India for his sister’s wedding, was ‘heavily intoxicated’ and ignored instructions from the crew, the airline said. 

A view of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on November 17, 2023

In January, a vice president at banking giant Wells Fargo was fired after he was accused of urinating on a 72-year-old woman while traveling between New York City and Mumbai. 

The incident involving Shankar Mishra occurred on November 26 2022 in the business class cabin of an Air India flight. 

Mishra’s lawyers claimed the senior citizen ‘condoned’ the act, according to multiple reports in India.

Reports in India said that Mishra, a resident of Mumbai, was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident.

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