A Kuwaiti man tried to divert a Qatar Airways flight to Geneva on Saturday, but the pilot made an unscheduled stop in Cairo where he was arrested and taken into custody, an airline official said.
Airline spokeswoman Salam al-Shawa said the unarmed man had caused a disturbance on Flight 553 from Casablanca in Morocco to the Qatari capital Doha.
"One of the passengers caused trouble as he wanted to enter the cabin and change the route. The pilot refused and landed in Cairo. He is a Kuwaiti national and he is in the custody of the Egyptian authorities," Shawa said, adding that the man had asked to go to Geneva.
Security sources at Cairo airport named the man as Hamad Fahd, 30, and said he had alarmed the crew and passengers by talking incoherently, harassing the cabin crew and trying to enter the cockpit in a threatening manner.
At Cairo airport, police took away both Fahd and a companion named only as Abdul Aziz, the sources said.
The airport doctor examined Fahd and concluded he was suffering from some form of mental disturbance, they added.
After 75 minutes in Cairo, the plane resumed its flight to Doha without the two men. Shawa said the state-owned carrier would press charges against the man.
