Woman attempts to open plane door as flight lands at LaGuardia: police source

EAST ELMHURST, Queens — Authorities were alerted to a social media post Friday around 2 p.m. that claimed a passenger tried to open the cabin door of a plane landing at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, a law enforcement source confirmed to PIX11.

As Delta flight 5935 descended into LaGuardia Friday afternoon, a female passenger reportedly started to scream that she “needed to open the door and die,” and attempted to open the main cabin door, the source said. The flight was traveling from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina.

The passenger’s father pulled her away from the door and the flight landed without issue, according to a police source.

Port Authority police and North Shore EMS workers responded to Gate C34 at LaGuardia and removed the passenger from the aircraft after it had landed, the source said.

Stacy Herbert on Twitter, who said she was a passenger on the flight, posted about the incident in a series of tweets. Herbert described the passenger who reportedly caused the disturbance as a woman “perhaps in her early twenties.”

Herbert also tweeted that the woman was “still outside the plane screaming,” after being removed from the flight upon its landing at LaGuardia.

Port Authority police deemed the incident a customer-service issue and took no actions, while EMS deemed the passenger an EDP (emotionally disturbed person) and transported her to Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side for observation.

There were 71 passengers and four crew members on board the flight, and there were no delays to airport operations due to the incident, the source said.