Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Nov 04/02) - A Hay River man and his two sons had a harrowing experience on a recent flight from Europe to Canada.

Brian Stewart, along with sons Chad and Trevis, helped subdue a passenger who suddenly went berserk and attacked another passenger on the Oct. 23 flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Calgary.

Stewart says the man was shouting about demons and devils.

The raving man then put a male flight attendant in a headlock, before passengers and members of the flight crew subdued him.

"Finally, we got control of this guy and got him down," says Stewart, who estimates the incident happened about eight hours into the nine-hour flight.

He describes the raging man as "a handful" to bring under control.

Stewart says the man was eventually tied up, using belts that other passengers had been wearing.

Passengers were then asked if anyone had duct tape, and Stewart says sure enough someone did, and it was used to bound the man.

"I was joking later that Red Green would have been proud of us," says the 42-year-old Stewart.

The raving man, who was from Calgary and returning from a Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Bosnia, was also sedated by a doctor on the Air Canada flight. Alan Kohlman has been charged with assault and causing a disturbance and is scheduled to appear in court in Calgary Dec. 19.

Stewart says it was a frightening experience. "Everybody was pretty shook up about it."

However, he says he did not think of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during the incident. His biggest concern was that the man might try to open an exit door or hurt somebody.

"I'm just glad we got down safely and nobody got hurt," says the vice-president of Igloo Building Supplies Group in Hay River.

His son Chad, 19, also says it was a scary incident. "With all this stuff going on with planes, you never know what the guy was going to do."

Chad says his first thought was to hope the man wasn't going to attack the pilot. "I had a few things running through my mind."

Both Stewart and his son agree that, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, anyone disrupting a flight will now have to deal with passengers, who will be more willing to fight back.

The Stewarts' action drew praise from Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen, who described the incident for the legislative assembly on Oct. 25.

Groenewegen added that the late Don Stewart -- the father of Brian Stewart and a former MLA and speaker of the assembly -- would have been proud of their actions.