A British man has been arrested after trying to open a plane door at 36,000 feet while screaming "It's OK, we are just on a simulator", media reports say.

The man, 22, was on a Thomson Airways plane from Majorca, Spain, to Newcastle in England when he jumped out of his seat and tried to open an emergency door 45 minutes into the flight, the Daily Mail reported.

"It was absolutely mental. Suddenly all the lights came on and all the air hostesses were shouting and we could see a lad trying to open the emergency door," a plane passenger told the Mail.

"The plane started shaking. I thought it was going to go down. His friends tried to pull him away from the door and he started punching them and saying: 'It's OK we are just on a flight simulator.'

"He was off his head. Then this other guy came from nowhere and smacked him in the head."

The cabin crew tied the man down with eight seatbelts and the plane made an emergency landing at Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, south of London, instead.

"The plane went down really quickly; it was quite a dodgy landing," the passenger, who asked not to be named, said.

"All our ears were popping. Then as soon as it came to a stop about six cops ran on board and arrested him."

No one was reportedly injured and no weapons were used, the BBC reported Sussex Police as saying.

The man was arrested on suspicion of endangering the safety of an aircraft and released on bail until November 8, a Sussex Police spokeswoman told the BBC.

A Thomson Airways spokeswoman said the man would not have been able to open the door while the plane was in the air because of cabin pressure.

"We would also like to reassure our customers that incidents of this type are extremely rare and that their safety is our first priority at all times," the spokeswoman said.

The flight later flew from Gatwick Airport to Newcastle.

smh.com.au