Passenger tries to open plane door during flight before being forced to ground and restrained with cable ties

Flight diverted to St Louis

(Twitter/KingFazir/Tim Wood)

A man had to be forcibly restrained after allegedly attempting to open the plane door on a flight from Chicago to Dallas.

The unnamed man was on American Airlines flight AA2300 on 3 March when the incident took place, forcing the pilot to divert to St Louis in Missouri.

A photo posted to social media shows him lying flat on his front, with his ankles bound and his hands tied behind his back.

Passenger Amy McIntree tweeted the picture alongside the caption: “Didn’t think I’d be stopping in St Louis but I guess when someone tries to open the airplane door while in the air, you’d want to get him off!”

Fazir Jameer Ali also tweeted about the experience, writing: “Breaking: on @AmericanAir flight 2300, a passenger tried to open the door on the flight from ORD to DFW. The flight was diverted to St. Louis.”

He also uploaded a video showing the man, who still appears to be partially restrained, being removed by police officers.

A spokesperson for St Louis Lambert International Airport told WSBT 22 that a man had been taken off the flight and arrested by airport police.

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the flight took off 13 minutes late at 6.53pm, and landed at St Louis just over an hour later.

American Airlines told The Independent: “American Airlines flight 2300 with service from Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW) diverted to St Louis due to an unruly passenger.

“The aircraft landed safely and law enforcement met it upon arrival. There were no injuries to passengers or crew members.”

It’s not the first time someone has caused havoc by trying to open the aircraft door mid-flight.

 

On 12 February, a 26-year-old woman was jailed for two years after trying to open the door of a passenger plane in mid-air.

Chloe Haines was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court of endangering the safety of an aircraft and assaulting a member of cabin crew.

The air rage incident occurred on board a Jet2 flight last June, which was flying to Dalaman in Turkey.

The aircraft was forced to return to the UK when Haines tried to open the door, forcing the RAF to scramble two Eurofighter Typhoon jets to intercept it.