A passenger aboard a JetBlue flight opened an exit door abruptly as the plane was taxiing for takeoff.
The passenger pried the door open ‘suddenly and without warning’ around 7.30pm on Tuesday while the aircraft was on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport, according to Massachusetts State Police spokesperson Tim McGuirk.
An emergency slide was triggered as the passenger opened the overwing door.
The passenger was restrained by fellow travelers aboard Flight 161.
Other passengers reportedly panicked at the unusual incident.
‘They were like freaking out. They were like, “Stop, stop!”‘ a passenger, Fred Wynn told WCVB-TV.
According to Wynn, the unruly passenger was sitting behind him and arguing with his girlfriend over the phone.
‘The guy got up and ran down the aisle’ toward the overing wing door, Wynn said.
The passenger, whose identity was not immediately released, was set to be charged and arraigned on Wednesday.
Passengers were moved to another plane, which eventually landed at the intended destination of San Juan, Puerto Rico, stated JetBlue.
The incident happened two-and-a-half weeks after an Alaska Airlines passenger opened an emergency exit door and walked out onto the wing of the plane after it landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. CCTV footage captured the woman holding her belongings and sitting down at the back end of the plane.
She ‘became anxious and opened the emergency exit and climbed onto the wing’, stated airport spokesman Perry Cooper. Port of Seattle Fire Department members ‘helped the woman off the wing and on a ramp to the ground’, he said. She was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluaton.
The exit door openings occurred as several terrifying aviation incidents have caused anxiety for some air travelers. On December 29, a Jeju Air plane that departed Bangkok crash landed without landing gear in Muan in South Korea. Only two crew members at the back of the aircraft survived and 179 people died.
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