A POOLE pensioner has spoken of the 'terrifying' moment a woman is said to have caused a mid-Atlantic flight to be diverted after she became disruptive.

Shirley Critchley, 82, was returning from an expedition led by Colonel John Blashford-Snell in Costa Rica on the US Airways flight from North Carolina to London on July 22, when Sarah Buffett, from a high-profile American law firm started 'screaming and shouting.'

Mrs Buffett was said to have taken a sleeping pill after the flight was delayed and drank three glasses of wine on an empty stomach, causing her to become unsettled and it is alleged fellow passengers had to help the flight attendants to restrain her.

Mrs Critchley said: "We were going from Charlotte in North Carolina and we were just leaving behind Nova Scotia to go over the Atlantic when a woman started going berserk.

"The fear that grips you is in a way that you don't want to describe at best. You know that there is a fracas, as I could see it happening in first class from where I was in second class, but you don't fully understand why.

"The flight attendants were calling for help from the passengers.

"I am sure that the woman must have been horrified after waking up from the ordeal."

Eventually the plane had to make an unplanned landing and Mrs Buffett was taken off the flight, which caused further long delays to passengers. Mrs Buffett has been suspended from her job pending an investigation.

Mrs Critchley said that she had been on an expedition from June 29, to deliver donated reading glasses and knitted turtle toys given through an appeal in Daily Echo.

"We had seen tropical rain like you have never seen before and there was also an earthquake.

"The work is so rewarding. My work was to provide spectacles to people who needed them for reading. Some people in Kinson also knitted some turtles, of which there was around 300 in total, as part of a turtle conservation project."

Mrs Critchley said that she managed to match up 84 people with donated reading glasses, which she was really pleased about.

She said that anyone who wishes to donate reading glasses or animal puppets to children ahead of the next exploration can give her a call on 01202 741320.