vidTO: Passenger Loses It at 30,000 ft.

How long is the flight from Toronto to London? That would be a terrible experience for everyone on that plane. I thought babies crying were bad...

Also, I wonder what his problem is with "fucking white people"?

That would be a good 8+ hours of insanity.

Maybe he thought he was on one of the "special" CIA flights? And I thought I was cranky on my flight from Atlanta to Kuwait City. LOL

I can hear him sayin " Dont TASE me Bro "

Is this news? I mean, I'm not going to complain about the articles that I don't care about because I assume *someone* cares about them, but this is just incredibly boring (not to mention a rather incomplete article).

why is this so important to have it's own post on this website?

Apparently he had a panic attack and this was the result.

And better to have him restrained than running amok on the plane. He's lucky no one knocked him out cold.

Oh man... you can see the pain on the other passengers' faces. That must have been the longest 8hr flight ever. Ugh.

Have you ever experienced this kind of thing in-flight? What do you think actually went down to provoke this kind of a reaction, and how do you think the crew/passengers handled it? Sound off in the comments.

Translation: we at BlogTO welcome wild speculation without basis in fact. Show us your biases!

Dearest BlogTO... I have been very disappointed with the articles lately. They barely qualify as news. What happened to the articles with substance? Articles with a point?

Dearest goleafsgo, your refund's in the mail. Sorry to disappoint.

I never claimed that this is news, it's just a slightly disturbing slash almost humorous look at how ridiculous air travel in this world has become. Take it however you'd like. Wild speculation is fantastic, so just bring it.

I guess we were just confused by the vague trend of newsy posts, but I appreciate the new desolate and mind numbing path you are taking. I think that website where you go to watch Youtube videos and comment on them may be called YOUTUBE.
And yeah, wildly speculating about something that seems to obviously be a panic attack is pretty fun.

jeez, tough crowd tonight eh?

He was asking for water. That sounds to me like the perfect opportunity to slip him some sort of sedative in his drink. I'm sure the flight attendants have that on hand.

Do you think airline attendants would be allowed to sedate this guy with drugs? Something tells me that would be breaking the law.

I don't know what some of you guys type into your web browsers when you come to this site. I suspect a few of you are typing in "Bastion-of-journalistic-integrity-and-hard-hitting-news-site-DOT COM". Personally I type in BLOGto.com This is a blog, ergo chill.

The media seem to have just gotten to this story today...

"The London video was posted on YouTube by a user named 2003tiburon, who in an e-mail to the Citizen said had recorded the video himself. He identified himself as Pat and says he was offered $500 by the television program Inside Edition for exclusive rights to the video. He did not respond to a request to provide more information about the incident." source:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=ae8df1c7-3da8-4c07-b0d6-4fff2d89d6e6

"Air Canada says there was no need for criminal charges against a man who began shouting obscenities and had to be physically restrained during a flight from Toronto to London last week." source:
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=74e5cf91-550c-4dde-9b97-65624c4c178f

i only watched the first 30 seconds so I don't know what happened after that but i just feel bad for the guy having the panic attack. Now this video is all over the web, it's got to be fairly humiliating. It's a guy in a really bad place and I'd hate to see a video of me at my worst moment in blogs and on websites. I'd like to see BlogTO take this post down as it's kind of in bad taste.

Leave the smut for BREAK.COM and youtube....

just my thoughts

Adam, you're an asshole. AND a bad reporter. and I'm not sorry I said that. For the most part the guy is saying "help me" and "i'm going to die" and not really anything else. Get your facts straight.

Eric, I'd like to know what professional certification allows you to conclude that this is "obviously ... a panic attack". Would you have responded the same if I had written in the original post, "this is obviously a panic attack." It's not obviously anything.

Tabish, I posted a comment in reply to your (much more well thought out and less-personal-attack-laced) blog post, but I'd like to hear what enlightening "facts" you that you gleaned from the video that I missed.

If it's just a matter that you disagree with what I quoted him saying (in which case you'd be wrong, since he did say everything quoted above), that's one thing, but please don't confuse me quoting what the guy's saying for what is "most important". If you so wish, I can post a transcript of what he says throughout the entire video, but that's not going to get us anywhere, is it?

Just to follow up on Tabish's comment above, he wrote a reply to this post on his own blog and I'd recommend you guys check it out to put his comment in context.

As someone who took over just under 100 separate flights (most of them to and from London) last year, I've never really experienced anything quite like this on a plane. That being said, I will say that I've seen my fair share of panic attacks that are usually dealt with quite effectively by airline staff.

This is probably just an anomaly that happened to get caught on tape, and is no real cause for a whole lot of hullabaloo.

I agree this should not have been a post on BlogTO. Blogs like this should be better. And then letting the writer of this article respond with "your refund is in the mail"? Ditch this writer, editors, he's bringing your blog down.

Yes, It does get crazy does it not? Sensationalism! the media! Much debate and controversy.

Adam, in response to your comment, I would like to publically apologize (even though I said I do not regretting swearing at you) for my behavior, I agree it was a personal attack. From my education in human behavior, communications (and lack thereof), television and society I conclude that there are *can be* no conclusions. But there can be inferences made, based on international social and political (historical) scenarios. The body gestures of every single individual, too speak great words. I would also like to point to the comments made by the rest of the individuals on this blog.

What is most important makes the news. Whether it be called breaking or otherwise. A lot of things happen which don't make even personal blogs, let alone metropolitan blogs. This made it to BlogTO, the comments quoted, most important "facts" first, opinions later (following the inverted pyramid - no im not a scholastic addict) shows that this was a well thought out article.

Note how "shoot me" and "help me" are often repeated, umpteen times throughout the clip, whereas, the only descernable (i hope i spelt that right) "fucking white people" came once to the end of the video. A lot of people use that expletive, so when the Russians say it, why doesn't it make a blog? Or when someone says something along the lines of "fuckin' brown people," or more commonly in the states, "sand niggers" why does it not make a blog?

And once again, Adam, I agree I got personal, my fault. I apologize.

It IS very obviously a panic attack. I feel horrible for this man and certainly wouldn't want this all over the internet if it happened to me.

Many folks have already talked about the humiliations in showing such video of a man in a difficult situation. If you anyway choose to show this video, it would be appropriate at least to say a word or two about Panic Attack. This a serious psychological issue many people experience. This video could made an opportunity to talk about the issue instead of pointing finger at a man in needs. Just my two cents.

In Michelle Malkin's (of FOX news) blog post they're debating whether or not Micheal Moore was seen in the video (and there's a lot of blatant racism throughout).

I expect that Air Canada will have some sort of explanation here on Monday.

If I may add/augment my post last night expressing disappointment, this post at least is better than the Michelle Malkin post. What an awful woman. She harms everybody, even her own cause (though it's a stretch to think her position on things is something honourable like a cause).

Comparing it only to what I've had in the past, I was not convinced from the start that this was a panic attack. As a bare minimum, I checked Wiki to see if there are symptoms varying from what I'm familiar with personally and this still draws me to the conclusion that this is not a panic attack.

The only other reason I can muster is that this may be schizophrenia or something similar. Panic attacks put your body into a fight or flight response, but they do not "impair your perception or expression of reality", or give you "paranoid or bizarre delusions."

At 1:08, does he say:

"You guys cheating [on] each others wives. You are sinner[s]."

?

I checked out Michelle Malkin's blog and am finding it extremely disappointing how many intelligent sounding posts across the board are concluding that because this person is panicking, it is a panic attack.

This person to me has some mental illness that has maybe gone unchecked. Now if he was mentally ill and had a panic attacks he could have ripped those cuffs off and tossed those guys around like rag dolls. People who have panic attacks are not mentally ill and do not act like annoying pricks like the guy in the video, but have abnormally heightened physiological fear responses to certain stimuli.

For me in the past it was mostly a greater than normal response when unprepared for being the focus of attention of a large group--socially or in school. This generally prevented me from having the words I wanted to say flow at a normal pace because near-blackout tunnel vision would onset and my heart would be pounding at a million miles a minute for no reason.

This is the second ignorant BlogTO post this week. Staff needs to screen this stuff better.

I don't find this post ignorant, I find it inquisitive and rather interesting.

I agree with Equalizer. I don't think it was a panic attack... more so he's probably schizophrenic or paranoid/delusional. All the "shoot me"s and "I'm going to die today"s confirm that for me.

Also, I'm impressed at how calm those two men beside him are. They seem genuinely caring, which reconfirms my belief in humanity in a way. And yes, it would be very very illegal to slip him any kind of sedative.

blogTO is not a news site, guys, it's a blog about Toronto-related things. Settle down.

Whoa.

Just gotta say - if this type of reporting bothers some readers so much, why are you clicking on the story and taking the time to comment? Me, I don't like something, I move on... guess that's just me.

anyone deeply fearful of flying can understand how those emotions can get out of control once you're trapped up there. it's a common phobia but some people have much much stronger reactions to it. thank goodness for sedatives, or i'd probably be this guy sometime.

Adam is the new shit disturber of BlogTO. My reign is over.

Adam... keep up the good work. By the way, how long ago did "Don't shoot the messenger" enter our vernacular? You'd think people would kind of have that one entrenched by now.

Kudos to the passengers for keeping their cool!