A drunken passenger on a Turkish Airlines flight tried to hijack a plane today - the flight was from Turkey to Russia.

No one’s sure where this guy wanted to go, or why - only that he did not get there.

Details are hard to come by - as news accounts put it, there is “no further information about how the passenger was brought under control”.

Hmmm. Gotta wonder what “brought under control” means. But brought under control he was.

UPDATE: Guy was “overpowered by fellow passengers.” He had claimed he had a bomb, but really all he had was drink after drink after drink… Or so it’s alleged.

You know those mean-spirited stereotypes about British travelers being drunken louts?

Well, according to an article in Gadling…there’s a reason for the stereotype: it’s true!

Now, now, before you get your knickers in a twist, understand that I’ve got plenty of relatives in England and Ireland, and they all strike me as perfectly respectable types as do the vast majority of the folks I’ve encountered in this sceptred isle (and that emerald one, too).

That said, the Brits’ own Foreign Office issued a report saying the number of Britons arrested overseas — mostly for excessive drinking — is soaring.

Again, most are “good tourists” but the fun folks have a money-saving tip for the rest of us: don’t waste money on hotels, just stay up all night and party. Is that genius or what?

No, I never heard of the “National Survey of American Cocktail Culture, Attitudes and Trends” before, but then again, I don’t get out much.

Nevertheless, there is such a survey, and according to the 2008 edition, more than half of all business travelers (66%) will “happily pay more for cocktails made with premium or top shelf’ brands”.

Wait — do the biz travelers “happily” pay? Or does the company? And how happy is the company about all this premium-imbibing by their intrepid road warriors?

Okay business people, watch my finger. Now, touch your nose. Steady there!

We always hear about the drunks on the plane that disrupt everything — but then what?

Well, as Paul Harvey used to say (or still says for all I know), here’s the rest of the story. Well, the rest of one story, anyway.

Last December, a hockey player for the Florida Everblades got into a ruckus on an American Airlines flight when he didn’t get as much alcohol as he requested; and by ruckus, I mean he smacked a flight attendant, head-butted a passenger, and in a daring bit of deviltry, exposed himself.

Anyway, those ominous wheels of justice grind slowly, but grind they do, and this week our hockey player was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Course, that probably means he’ll be out in a few days, but hey…

I love the word “rampage”.

And that’s what two British women are accused of going on. This was during a charter flight from Greece to England.

Flight attendants on the flight refused to serve the ladies alcohol, as it appeared they had already been “over-served” as they say. The ladies disagreed, and hit a flight attendant with a bottle of vodka.

Then they tried to open a cabin door as the plane was cruising at 32,000 feet — but readers of our brother blog, RickSeaney.com would not have been alarmed — they would know such a feat is impossible.

Let’s see. We’ve written about drunk Germans on a plane. Drunk Americans on a plane. Drunk Russians on a plane. See a unifying theme here?

Yes. The intoxicating brotherhood of man. We are the world.

What IS it with drunken passengers these days?

Used to be, they’d just sit there and get quietly soused. Today, they grab various portions of flight attendant personageorget real drunk and claim to be aterrorist (can you get any stupider?).

Our latest party boy was a first class passenger on Delta (see — it’s not just the rabble in coach);he got mad because he saw “lesser” passengers being allowed to deplane ahead of him. So, he put on his thinking cap, and decided HE’D deplane first — by pulling open an emergency hatch and sliding down the chute — whee!

A police officialsaid the man appeared intoxicated.And yourfirst clue was…?

A Delta official said,the manwill pay for his unauthorized ride.

This latest party boy incident (okay, sometimes these incidents involve party girls) was on an American flight yesterday (Dallas to Charlotte) when our hero got a little too happy.

What’s too happy?

According to gadling.com, in this case “too happy” was throwing ice around the cabin, saying bad words, and grabbing a flight attendant’s uh, hind-quarters. Happy juice of choice: rum and coke.

No doubt you’re thinking “crazed businessman” or “carefree-young-lad-making-merry-on-boring-flight” but you’d be wrong.

Party boy was traveling with the wife and kiddies.

How’s that spelled again? Oh, yeah. L-O-S-E-R.

Don’t drink and fly, and no, it doesn’t matter if you’re not the pilot.

2-passenger jets (in unrelated incidents) were forced to make emergency landings in Poland (Poland?) to remove some drunk guys.

Bozo #1 was on Germany’s budget airline, LTU, which was flying from Thailand to Dussesldorf. They took him off the plane, but his wife and child stayed put. Good move.

Bozo #2 was on a Lufthansa flight from Germany to the Ukraine when he decided to tell fellow passengers he was a terrorist. Bad move, especially since it turned out he wasn’t a terrorist (they checked) — he was simply a drunken moron! Allegedly, allegedly.

Poland? What’s the deal with Poland?

I’m not one to judge you for having a couple of drinks on the plane, but if you get drunk and belligerent, you should know that you will end up paying for it.

A drunken passenger who caused an American Airlines flight departing Seattle and destined for Miami to divert to Denver. It seems he was insulted a flight attendant suggested he should stop pounding the Vodka. The passenger hurled obscenities and allegedly “grabbed the buttocks of a female passenger.”

Keep reading for all the sordid details…

Now, we’re not ones to encourage drinking in any way. But if you are a world traveler who likes to enjoy the occasional cocktail, it can be helpful to know which countries specialize in which drinks. What’s their national drink of choice, if you will.

Well, those crazy kids at Forbes have put together a list of the top 10 signature drinks from around the world. It’s a little cultural, a little decadent, and a lot of booze. Keep reading for a look atwhat I believe to be the scariest drink on the list. It involves rotted shark meat. That’s all I’m saying…

Well, yes, that’s what airport security had in mind (according to AP/MSN) when a 64-year old man showed up at the Nuremberg airport last week with a liter-bottle of vodka.

Security officials said, dump it or put it in your checked luggage.

Our hero came up with a 3^rd option. He drank it down. Of course, he almost killed himself (and wound up in a clinic for a few days), but he sure showed them, huh?