‘I felt like an animal’

The disturbing moment when cops tasered a man for refusing to move seats during a flight was captured on camera.

“I felt like an animal,” tasing victim Bolic Bet Malou told 9News, “I was tasered and carried out of the place, pushed.”

The shocking incident occurred Saturday night while he was on a Jetstar flight from Perth, Australia to his hometown Melbourne. The 30-year-old man had allegedly agreed with another passenger to switch seats so that the father could sit with his wife and one-year-old child.

Prior to takeoff, however, the cabin crew asked Malou to move back to his originally assigned seat, away from his family. When he repeatedly refused, flight attendants called in the Australia Federal Police (AFP) to handle the situation.

In the ugly footage, an orange-clad flight attendant can be heard telling Malou “we have reasons to not take you now”

The passenger calmly responded, “Call the police. I will go when the police come.”

The clip then cuts to a little while later after the AFP arrive with yellow tasers and confront Malou over his alleged disorderly conduct. “You’ve failed to comply with aircraft instructions,” one of the officers declares. “I need you to come with me right now.”

“What have I done wrong,” protests Malou, to which the officer replies, “Either you come with us voluntarily or we’re going to grab you.”

In the next frame, the officers can be seen scuffling with the father in the aisle in full view of fellow passengers. One of the agents then deploys their taser, causing Malou to yell and writhe in agony as another grabs him in a headlock.

“Let him go, stop,” Malou’s wife screams while holding their baby.

The clip ends with the officers escorting the flyer off the plane in handcuffs, after which he was reportedly placed under arrest. Reports state that his family remained on the plane.

“Five police, four different Taser guns at once,” Malou said while reacting to footage of the ugly altercation. “It’s voltage on a human that done nothing wrong.” He found his treatment especially “unreasonable” given that “only wanted to sit next to his family.”

Fellow flyer Jaeris Vansson, who filmed the exchange, said the situation “escalated so fast.”

“It went from like just this argument with staff, to this guy screaming at the top of his lungs being tasered,” he said. “It was very violent and very sudden.”

Prior to the ruckus, Malou reportedly had “an amicable agreement” with another passenger to switch seats so he could be with his family, the videographer claimed.

Vansson added that Malou “at no stage was being verbally or physically aggressive towards anyone.”

This account conflicted with the version of events presented by officers, who claimed that Malou acted aggressively, leaving three in their party with minor injuries.

“The AFP has no tolerance for poor behavior in our airports or on aircraft,” said the AFP’s acting superintendent Shona Davis.

Meanwhile, Jetstar has since corroborated their story. “Our crew called the AFP for assistance when a customer became abusive towards our crew, repeatedly refusing to follow their instructions to move to his assigned seat,” AFP representatives wrote in an official statement. “The AFP removed two customers from the aircraft, and one was later arrested.”

They concluded, “The safety of our customers and crew is our number one priority and while the vast majority of our customers behave well, we have zero tolerance for those who don’t.”

Following his arrest, Malou was charged with disorderly behavior and assaulting and obstructing police officers while court orders have banned him from flying until his trial in July, the Sydney Herald reported.

However, his attorneys are battling to amend the bail conditions so he can reunite with his family in Melbourne before then.