Man Attempts to Open Airplane Door Inflight

Filed in archive Aviation Travel on August 27, 2007

I don't have a fear of flying. However, there is one thing that often runs through my mind when I fly. What happens if a passenger attempts to open the door in mid-flight?

Unfortunately, for passengers abroad a frontier airlines flight found out when a passenger attempted to open the airplane door. The unidentified man was restrained for the duration for the flight and was immediately taken into police custody.

Hodas said the man would not have been able to open the door even if he had not been subdued. "You need special training to open the door," he said.

There were 128 passengers and five crew members on the plane, Hodas said.

Passenger Bobby Vigil of Estes Park told KUSA-TV the man had been acting strangely. The man, whose name was not released, was restrained for the remainder of the flight.

"I turn around and hear the flight attendant yelling for someone to help her because he opened the back door of the plane. The whole rest of the flight, all the way in, he was yelling and trying to bite the tape, and they ended up restraining him with an extra lap belt," said Vigil.

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