London  - A drunken passenger tried to open the door of a British charter plane over the Atlantic before he was restrained by crew, other passengers were quoted Thursday as saying.

The Boeing 767 made an unscheduled landing on Bermuda to offload the man, who had been drinking from bottles bought earlier at an airport duty-free shop, passengers were quoted as saying by the Daily Mail newspaper.

He had been arguing with other passengers, then when told to quieten down by crew members, he went to the aircraft's door and started meddling with it. The crew stopped him opening it.

"The captain decided it was better to make an unscheduled landing," said a spokeswoman of the charter company, First Choice.

The passengers were put up at hotels before continuing their trip to Cuba. The man was detained by local police and faces a heavy fine and bill for the unscheduled stop. (dpa)