Photo: United Airlines/Getty Images
Officials said that a passenger aboard a United Airlines flight was arrested after opening an emergency door and walking out. by the wing of an airplane in motion after it landed in Chicago early Thursday morning.
Flight 2478 from San Diego landed at O’Hare International Airport around 4:30 in the morning and was heading to the boarding gate when the man opened the door and went up to the wing, and the airline told The New York Post.
“Our ground staff apprehended the person outside the aircraft, who is now with the police. The plane then arrived at the gate, and all passengers alighted safely,” a United representative told the outlet in an email.
“I heard everyone yell, ‘No, no, no,’ and he just walked out the exit door and up the wing. Even the flight attendants came back and said, ‘What just happened?’” he recalled.
“He crawled over one person and then three people on the other side and went out that door,” Eagelston told the outlet.
Chicago police say the man has been arrested.
“A male subject was on board an aircraft approaching the gate when he pulled the emergency exit door and exited onto the wing of the aircraft,” police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli told The New York Post in a statement.
“The subject then slid down the wing and entered the airfield. The Chicago Police Department arrived and took him into custody. Charges are pending,” added Bartoli. “As charges have not yet been finalized, we cannot release any further information about the alleged offender.”