It was just before takeoff on a St. Louis-bound flight from Cancun this past Monday when a man opened the cabin door of a Frontier Airlines jet as it was taxiing to the runway.
Flight 87 was making its way to the runway when officials say a passenger said he was feeling ill and “became agitated.”
The flight crew made the decision to return to the gate, but according to a statement provided to Global News, the man — whose name has not been released — became “physically violent” with a flight attendant.
He then opened a cabin door, which deployed the emergency slide, and tried to exit the plane. The plane was stopped when this happened.
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Kathleen Ingham was on the flight when the incident occurred and filmed part of the events as they unfolded.
In a Facebook post, Ingham said the man began “kicking the cockpit door telling them to let him off.” Later, Ingham continued, he “then pushes the flight attendant into the door and opens it.”
Video recorded by Ingham shows people attempting to stop him from leaving, holding him back.
“Crew members, assisted by some passengers, restrained the individual until authorities arrived,” the statement from Frontier reads.
It was a move that Ingham praised in her posts.
“Thank God for the men and women that held him in the plane or he for sure would have been sucked into the engine,” she wrote. “The people on the plane literally made a human chain to keep him from falling out of the plane. I’m so shaken up.”
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Frontier says authorities arrived a short time later and took the passenger to be medically evaluated. According to Fox News-affiliate Fox 2 Now St. Louis, the man was then hospitalized.
Passengers on board the flight were re-booked on other flights by the airline and provided hotel accommodation to those who needed it.
They said the aircraft was removed from service pending a maintenance check, due to the deployed slide.
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