TERROR struck a family from Winsford on board a holiday jet when a maniac wreaked havoc - by trying to open the doors at 30,000 feet!

Lenny Hagendyk, of Bradbury Road, was among a party of five jetting from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, to Manchester, who thought they were going to die.

The kamikaze passenger strapped on his rucksack and screamed: "Get your parachutes on - we're getting out now!"

The man, wearing a red, Clint Eastwood-style poncho, was sitting just three seats away from Lenny, who was returning from a two-week holiday with his wife Frances, daughter Adele Kirk, future son-in-law Conrad Fisher and 12-month-old grandson Lewis Fisher.

The man tugged and kicked the doors of the aircraft before running towards the cockpit to the pilot.

It took 10 male passengers to pin him down. They were forced to tie him to four seats and sit on him until the Boeing made an emergency landing at Cardiff airport.

The drama on Britannia Airlines flight BY 130B began three hours into the four-hour journey last Thursday.

But Lenny and his family were not the only Winsford passengers on the flight.

One of his workmates from Kwik Save distribution depot in Winsford, Carl Greenwood, was also on the plane, because in a bizarre coincidence they had booked a holiday to the same destination.

Carl and his girlfriend Elsa Daniels were, however, sat some distance away from the crazy passenger, unlike Lenny.

Lenny described his ordeal, saying: "The man looked a bit agitated but I just put it down to nerves.

"We were in the middle section of the plane and he was sitting just three seats away from us. We knew he was a bit strange because at one point we saw him putting Brylcreem in his ears.

"He also had a newspaper and he had written the words 'green glitter' all over it."

Frances said: "Suddenly he jumped up and went berserk. He ran for the doors and tried to open them, shouting 'I'm going to kill you all!'

"I can still hear the hysterical screams from the women and children. It was awful. A terrible experience. I was panic-stricken.

"He thought his rucksack was a parachute and told everyone he could jump out. Then he ran towards the cockpit and people tried to stop him but he was climbing over the seats.

"I think he said he was trying to get to the pilot."

Carl, sat at the rear of the plane, said: "I heard a fellow passenger get up and say 'if we don't tackle this man he will kill us all.'

Lenny added: "I had my grandson on my knee, so I didn't get up to help pin him down.

"He was a strong man. He was throwing people off him and it took 10 males to restrain him. They had to use babies' seat belts to tie him to four seats and then they sat on him.

"Some passengers were shouting: 'hit him, knock him out.' They were just afraid he would get up again.

"They looked in his bag to see if he had any weapons but he just had two pairs of boxer shorts and some Brylcreem."

Frances said the flight was the most terrifying experience of her life.

She said: "The cabin staff didn't do anything to stop the man and they didn't help restrain him either.

"We made an emergency landing at Cardiff and we were there for three hours sat on the plane before we were able to take off again.

"Even men came off the jet at Manchester saying they would never fly again.

"The hysterical screams of the passengers are still haunting me now."

Police arrested a 23-year-old man from Kent, who was being held at the weekend under the Mental Health Act.

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