John Henderson Praises Son on Jet2 Flight LS1004

John Henderson said a man and his eight-year-old son helped calm a disruptive passenger on jet2 flight LS1004 from Izmir, Turkey, to Manchester on Friday, April 25, and prevented a diversion. He said cabin crew were minutes from turning the plane around before the intervention worked.

The flight left 50 minutes late after being scheduled for 8pm, with around 20 passengers transferred from another cancelled flight after a separate disruptive-passenger incident. Henderson said the first drinks service began at about 9.25pm, just before the situation escalated.

John Henderson on LS1004

Henderson said the woman became violent after her whisky was confiscated. “She was already drinking her own alcohol when the stewardess came round,” he said. “they told her, ‘you can’t have that, we sell alcohol and you’ve had too much’, and confiscated her bottle of whisky.”

He said the passenger then turned on cabin crew. “She then just erupted, calling them names, being violent towards them. It was a really bad situation,” Henderson said. Many passengers feared the plane was moments from being diverted, and cabin crew later said they had been within seconds of doing so.

Row Five Intervention

A man in row five asked cabin crew if he could step in, saying, “please just give me 30 seconds.” Henderson said he swapped seats with another traveller so the disruptive passenger could sit beside him, then stayed with her for the remaining three and a half hours of the flight.

Henderson said the man kept the woman calm, adding that “he was completely in control of the whole situation.” The stewardesses, he said, kept saying, “you don't know how much money you’ve saved Jet2 here.”

Eight-Year-Old Son

Henderson said the man’s eight-year-old son also helped calm the woman. “It wasn’t just him, it was his eight-year-old son. He was talking to the lady as well, trying to help his dad calm her down,” he said.

When asked if he was okay, the boy replied, “I’m just helping my dad.” Henderson called him “an absolute superstar.”

The flight reached Manchester after the intervention, with the cabin crew avoiding a diversion that they had said was close. For passengers on LS1004, the immediate outcome was a delayed arrival rather than a forced landing elsewhere, after a row-five intervention held the disruption in check.