'Gudmundur likes to drink, but his behavior has the family scratching their heads,' relatives of man taped to plane seat speak out



Shocked relatives of the drunken Iceland Air passenger who had to be wrapped up with duct tape and gagged after he began attacking female passengers and screaming that the plane was going to crash are baffled by the man's behavior.



Relatives of Gudmundur Karl Arthorsson, the Icelandic native who caused the incident on a plane ride from Reykjavik to New York on Friday, said he likes to drink but is not a violent person.



'Gudmundur likes to drink, but his behavior has the family scratching their heads,' a relative of the the 46-year-old engineer said.



Restrained: Gudmundur Karl Arthorron, 46, was restrained by fellow passengers after he went on a drunken rampage, spitting, screaming about a crash, and even attempting to choke one woman

'He isn’t a violent person,' the relative told the New York Post . 'This was not normal behavior for him. I hope he is OK.'

Arthorsson allegedly became aggressive after drinking two bottles of hard liquor that he had bought in duty-free in Iceland before boarding the plane.



The Post reported that his actions prompted the flight attendant to confiscate the bottles, but that didn't stop him from drinking as he reached into the seat pocket in front of him where there were mini bottles of whiskey, schnapps, and Grand Marnier.



At that point, the two female passengers who were seated next to him in the 23rd row of the plane felt uncomfortable and asked a flight attendant to sit elsewhere. The attendants accommodated the women and arranged to have them switch with two Guatemalan men.



A police source told The Post that Arthorsson 'became intoxicated, verbally abusive toward the flight crew as well as other passengers' around 4pm, when there were just two hours left until they reached JFK.



Travel: The divorced Icelandic-national was traveling from Reykjavik to New York but was planning to go to Jamaica to meet his fiancee

Long flight: Witnesses said the man began acting crazy four hours into the six hour flight to New York

The first reports about the incident came from the blog of New York-based journalist Andy Ellwood who was friends with one of the fellow passengers.



Reporter: The picture of Arthorsson was taken from New York man Andy Ellwood's (pictured) Tumblr where he posted an account of the man's drunken behavior

The friend, who decided to remain anonymous, relayed to Ellwood that Arthorsson 'tried to grope and strangle fellow passengers and they said absolutely not,' Ellwood wrote on his Tumblr account.



When he became unruly, (i.e. trying to choke the woman next to him and screaming the plane was going to crash), fellow passengers subdued him and tie him up for the rest of the flight. He was escorted off the flight by police when it landed.'

The 'passenger drank all of his duty free liquor on the flight from Iceland to JFK yesterday,' Ellwood wrote.

Ellwood also posted a picture of Arthorsson after the Guatemalan passengers teamed up with the flight attendants to subdue the man, using duct tape and plastic cuffs to bind his ankles and knees.



Once the plane landed, police took Arthorsson to Jamaica Hospital to treat his alcohol poisoning, but that didn't stop them from seeing some of his antics.

''Just think of a typical drunk, when he starts taking fighting poses,' the police source told The Post.

Arthorsson allegedly was so 'completely out of his mind' at the time that he started screaming that there was a snake slithering up his leg when police began to remove him from the plane.



Even though police were involved, he will not have any charges pressed against him because too many passengers declined to testify against him.





