A passenger told today how he was caught up in a terrifying air-rage incident that left him fearing for his life 30,000ft in the sky, writes Mark Templeton.

Friends Matthew Cavill and William Ford, of Oxford, cowered in terror as one of four thugs causing chaos on their holiday flight home made a dive for the airplane door.

The drunken louts had earlier hurled abuse at stewardesses and passengers during the four-hour flight.

They were arrested when the flight from the Greek island of Kos finally touched down at Gatwick. Matthew, 23, a building society customer adviser of Oakthorpe Road, Summertown, and William, a student, also 23, of St Clements, said they were relieved to have their feet back on the ground.

Matthew said: "It was absolutely terrifying and more like something you would see in a film.

"The four men were really abusive, especially to the female staff, and had a go at them, saying they had taken too long to fetch their beer. "A stewardess eventually asked one of the men to move because she wanted to split the group up and that is when things really kicked off.

"He went straight for the door but the stewardess was able to grab him.

"The whole plane just went quiet, apart from the children on board, who were crying."

Matthew said the four had earlier been kicked out of a hotel in Cardanena, on Kos, for drunken behaviour.

The flight home had been delayed by five hours and its air conditioning had broken, which Matthew said had led to some passengers becoming agitated and stressed. He added: "It hasn't put us off flying, but at the time we just wanted to be off that plane.

"It was a flight from hell and we heard some of the people say that they would never get on a plane again after what happened."

The gang, believed to be from the London area, were taken to Crawley police station where they were held over- night.

They were questioned in connection with criminal damage to a plane seat and an offence of disorderly behaviour towards the plane's crew and were bailed for a month.