A MAN from Bury was overpowered by terrified passengers on a flight from Dubai.

The 37-year-old was heard to shout Bin Laden' and white scum' while in a drunken rage on a jet heading for Manchester last Thursday.

The pilot of the Emirates Boeing 777 was forced to radio Manchester Airport and ask police to meet the flight when it landed.

One passenger said: "The man had his top off and kept shouting the words 'Allah', 'Bin Laden' and 'white scum'. Then I heard him shout, I'm not a terrorist, I'm not a terrorist'. He just wouldn't shut up. He was going on and on. It was frightening. People were trying to calm him down."

A struggle broke out between the man and several passengers, and he was eventually overpowered. He was later arrested by police on suspicion of assault, endangering an aircraft and being drunk on board a plane. He has been bailed until May pending further investigations.

A spokesman for Emirates said: "We can confirm there was a disturbance involving some passengers before flight EK017 arrived at Manchester Airport.

"As a result, police were called to the aircraft at the crew's request and the matter is now being dealt with by them.

"The safety of the aircraft was at no time compromised. However, Emirates takes such incidents very seriously and we will not tolerate disruptive passengers on board our aircraft."