We’ve brought you many, many airplane passenger horror stories over the years. But forget everything you know about bad passenger behavior. This story is a doozy!
A Southwest airline passenger reportedly opened the plane’s emergency exit hatch, jumped onto the plane’s wing, and then ran down the tarmac. Obviously, this caused a ton of chaos on the Atlanta-bound flight, with passengers filming and scrambling to understand what had happened. Video allegedly of the incident shows ground crews tackling a man to the ground after he escaped from the plane. (The Root has not independently verified the video).
Before anyone really freaks out, the plane was stationary at the time. Had this happened in the air, it would have been a very, very different scenario. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office told NBC News that the passenger was apprehended and taken to a local hospital to be evaluated.
The incident took place on Sunday night at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. According to NBC News, no criminal charges have been filed. Southwest Airlines told the news network that after a brief delay, the flight departed to Atlanta and eventually made its way to the plane’s final destination in Baltimore. So far, there are no reports of injuries to the other passengers.
“We commend our flight and ground crews for their swift action and apologize to our customers for their inconvenience,” Southwest airline told NBC News.
While we’ve seen plenty of questionable behavior from airplane passengers over the last few years, this story will likely go down in infamy. It’s hard to top jumping out of a plane window and making a break for it. (And please whatever you do, do not try to recreate this one).