GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Delta Airlines has placed a lifetime ban on a Guyanese man who travelled on one of its flights under the influence of alcohol and created panic among other passengers.

On July 4, Christopher Satyanand, a first class passenger on the Delta flight to Guyana from New York, deployed the emergency exit safety latch aboard the aircraft because, in what was said to be a drunken fit, he could not wait to use the stairway to deplane.

People on the ground said that the plane had already come to a halt and people had begun to deplane when they heard a loud explosion. To say that the passengers on the stairways were startled would be an understatement, a member of the ground crew said.

The employee said that he looked up to see Satyanand at the top of the escape chute holding his attaché case and about to slide down the chute, which he did and landed on the tarmac.

When the man came down he told the people that were around that his father is rich and that he could pay for any damage.

The mans father operates a gas station at Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara.

Satyanand was said to have boarded the aircraft with alcohol purchased from a duty free shop in the John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the first class cabin, he was served with a customary round of drinks.

Head of Delta Airlines in Guyana, Captain Gerry Capt Gouveia, said that under such conditions whenever the flight attendants serve drinks, people with their own supplies would drink as much as five times what is served.

Asked about the likelihood of the flight attendants not paying enough attention to the passenger whom they had to know was under the influence, Capt Gouveia said that there might have been a clash of cultures and that the flight attendants would have preferred to avoid an incident with the passenger.

He added that the airline is likely to react by banning Satyanand for life, as other airlines, including Zoom, have had to do to some Guyanese from time to time. Capt Gouveia said that Satyanands behaviour cost the airline a lot of money.

Delta was required to fly in another aircraft from Texas, execute repairs to the blown escape chute and accommodate the outgoing passengers for more than 24 hours at hotels in the city.