Passengers on a flight from Singapore to Brisbane say they were forced to restrain a raging Australian man who damaged a seat and bit a fellow passenger on the arm.

Etihad Airways flight 470 was forced to return to Singapore, where the man was escorted from the plane.

The flight later landed safely in Brisbane.

Passenger Tracey Mewis said the man, believed to be in his early 30s, had been acting strangely in Singapore before their initial boarding.

"We thought he was just off his face - he hassled two lots of couples," she said.

"They did talk to him before he got on the plane, they pulled him aside.

"Once we got on the plane he was OK for about 40 minutes."

Sorry, this video has expired Passengers describe their terror at man's violent mid-flight episode ( Andree Withey )

But he then ripped the TV screen out from the seat in front of him and attacked passengers and crew.

"He assaulted one of the male flight attendants and then guys on the plane just pinned him down and held him down and restrained him," Ms Mewis said.

One of the men who restrained him, Rob Metaich, arrived in Brisbane with a bandaged arm.

"I had to apprehend him and in doing so just got a bit of a bite on the arm," he said.

"It’s my birthday today too.

"I don’t know what was going on with him, maybe a bit of substance abuse, he was clearly drunk."

Fellow passenger Callum Glass said the man seemed to be afraid of a threat to the aircraft.

"He just started attacking the TV screen and hitting it, and he ripped it out thinking there was a bomb behind it," Mr Glass said.

'I thought we'd been hijacked'

Fellow passenger David Bradbury also helped restrain the man.

"He was quoting religious quotes and all sorts of things.

"Just for the blink of an eye I thought we’d been hijacked, just for a blink of an eye and then I realised what was happening."

Another passenger said the situation could have been much worse.

"What if he grabbed hold of a door and opened a door? People weren't strapped in at that stage," Brian Schillinger said.

"It could have been a catastrophe as far as I'm concerned."

An Etihad Airways spokesman confirmed the plane was forced to return to Singapore due to a disruptive male passenger.

"The passenger was detained by authorities on arrival in Singapore," the spokesman said.

"Etihad Airways takes such incidents seriously and has a zero tolerance policy towards disruptive behaviour in-flight.

"Etihad Airways apologises for the delay and is providing assistance to passengers with onward connections."