It seemed to be a normal flight from Auckland, New Zealand to Houston, USA, but things turned upside down after a woman passenger began screaming non-stop hysterical things mid-air, causing discomfort to other passengers and cabin crew. The plane had to be diverted to Tahiti island in French Polynesia citing emergency landing.
Vincent Garcia, of New York, was flying in the same plane with his friends and family members and revealed that a woman passenger who was sitting right in front of him began her hysterical chanting fits yelling about ''evil thoughts''. He first assumed the weird screams were coming from the movie he was watching, but when he removed his headset, was in complete shock hearing the woman scream on top of her voice.
The woman screamed 'Jesus Christ I rebuke my evil thoughts'
"I took my headset off and we all looked at each other like, 'what's going on, this is really weird'. My father-in-law (sitting beside the woman) was looking at us as this woman was screaming. A couple of minutes later she screamed 'in the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke my evil thoughts'. She started crying a little. At first, she had her hands in the air, waving them. She then put her head down," he said to the NZ Herald.
Garcia said that his father-in-law asked the woman if she was feeling okay but she ignored him completely and then turned around towards him and gave out a "really weird face". He said the incident left him and his family and friends ''shocked and scared.'' Due to the woman's fierce yelling, an elderly couple sitting next to her also changed seats and the situation became increasingly concerning.
Emergency landing in Tahiti island
A flight attendant then alerted a senior cabin crew member and the official began questioning the woman. The woman, screamed at the official ''arrest me'' and ran towards the toilet and locked herself up for 15 minutes. It was then that the senior member alerted the pilots about the situation and the plane had an emergency landing in Tahiti island where the woman was handed over to the police.
''We thought maybe she was having a bad nightmare, she was saying the same thing over and over and over again. So he came over and started questioning her, and she said 'arrest me'. I guess she just felt she had some evil inside her and she was going to do something. She warned him, 'just arrest me', and then they got up and walked down the back of the plane," said Garcia.
Many passengers missed their connecting flights
The passengers had to remain in Tahiti for a couple of hours, as the plane re-fuelled, resulting in many passengers missing their connecting flight to the United States. Thankfully many of them were put up in a hotel by Air NZ. While Garcia praised Air New Zealand staff for the way they handled the incident, he was surprised to see it labelled a "medical emergency".
"It was kind of scary just because it was a little eerie in the sense, were there other people, was she supposed to be doing something on the plane, why is she telling them to arrest her?," he said.
