A 45-year-old jobless window cleaner from West Yorkshire has been jailed in Sheffield after he tried to open an aircraft's door as the plane was about to land in Malta.
Disaster was prevented when the drunken man was wrestled to the floor by a crew member as he tried to open the door of the chartered Boeing 757 aircraft.
The Sheffield Today newspaper reported that Emma Monckton, 25, of Sheffield earned a police accolade for preventing a potential disaster.
The Thomas Cook air stewardess had just taken her seat for landing when she spotted the man stagger towards one of the doors. She reacted immediately by struggling with the passenger to prevent him pulling down a lever that would have opened the door.
According to a Thomas Cook spokesman, had he succeeded, the hinges of the door would have come away inflating a safety shoot.
Ms Monckton managed to knock the passenger to the floor. After recovering, he started to make his way towards the cockpit but was stopped by other cabin crew who came to the air stewardess' assistance.
The passenger had been travelling with a team of amateur footballers to play a Maltese team. He was allowed to stay for his holiday but was arrested when he returned to Manchester Airport. He was charged and later jailed for being drunk and endangering the lives of passengers on an aircraft, the newspaper said.
Ms Monckton's actions in restraining the man have earned her a special accolade from Greater Manchester Airport Police after she was nominated for a Royal Humane Society Bravery award.
Chief Inspector Martin Gaffney said the air stewardess' quick-thinking on the day prevented a potentially catastrophic situation.
Ms Monckton, who is modest about her bravery, said she was still haunted by the events of that flight.
"Whenever I see a large group of men coming towards me, I momentarily panic," she said.
"The next time a Malta flight came up on my roster I would have given anything to have got out of going, but I'm happy about flying there now."
Malta International Airport officials said they had not been informed about the incident.
When contacted, MIA's chief of security, Mario Cuomo, said that in such instances the crew was not obliged to inform the local authorities about what happened since the aircraft was considered British territory even if it was in Maltese airspace.
Even if the Maltese authorities had got to know about the incident they would still have required the permission of the captain before intervening in any manner. Should this permission have been granted, then a number of bilateral agreements would regulate how an offender is dealt with or repatriated.
The airline in question would have been guaranteed that the passenger would be flying back to his home country. Action would then be instituted at once.
Mr Cuomo said MIA has never dealt with incidents such as the one reported by Sheffield Today, though cases of drunken passengers disrupting others on board were not uncommon.