The only way to control a drunk passenger on a recent Ryanair flight to Malta was for two other men to “pin him down to the ground” for a large part of the flight, according to a witness.

An RTÉ reporter who happened to be on the flight from Dublin to Malta described the scene as “quite scary”, with many passengers “inebriated” before take-off.

Many of the 180 passengers on board were heading for a dance festival in Malta. 

Brawls broke out during the flight, punches were thrown and another man was held up to the window of the plane by his neck, Kieran Dineen said.

He recounted how people would not settle into their seats as the plane was preparing to depart, and that once in the air, a considerable amount of duty free liquor was bought and consumed.

People were jumping in and out of their seats with some passengers shouting at the stewards or giving them “hand gestures to show that they weren’t really interested in what they thought”.

“There was one man handing out a big bottle of vodka for people to take sips out of. So it was quite scary because there was always the chance that things would spill over,” he told Irish media.

The airline issued a statement saying: “Crew on Dublin to Malta flight requested police assistance upon arrival after several passengers became disruptive in flight, the aircraft landed normally and the police removed and detained these individuals.

The airline said it would “not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. This is now a matter for local police”.

Two men were arraigned on Wednesday charged with drunk and disorderly behaviour. They were each fined €1,500.

There was another arraignment on similar lines on Thursday  relating to an incident on an Air Malta flight. The passenger, who was tipsy, interfered with the crew’s inflight duties and caused a disturbance, was a 21-year old Briton.

He pleaded guilty and was also fined €1,500, the court taking note of his early guilty plea, full cooperation with police and the fact that the prosecution did not insist upon an effective jail term.