An American Airlines plane bound for Chicago had to return to its departure airport in the US state of New Mexico after one of its passengers tried to open the door mid-flight, reports said. reported American media.
A video widely shared on social networks and in the media since Tuesday shows other passengers preventing the man from opening the handle of one of the exit doors.
The plane, which took off from the southwestern city of Albuquerque, had almost reached an altitude of 8,000 meters before turning back, according to flight tracking data.
“American Airlines Flight 1219 returned safely to Sunport International Airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico, around 2:40 p.m. local time (9:40 p.m. GMT), Tuesday, February 20, after the crew reported a disturbance coming from a passenger,” the American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency (FAA) declared on its website.
“The FAA is investigating,” she added, without providing further information on the incident.
Questioned by ABC, Blaze Ward, one of the passengers, claimed that the man “had already lowered the safety mechanism and had both hands on the lever”.
“He was a big guy and he had already pulled it good and I don’t know if you can hear it, but there was a difference in pressure, like a hiss,” he reported.
Although the United States has not experienced a fatal plane accident in more than ten years, vigilance has increased in the sector since an incident occurred last month, when the door of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 of Alaska Airlines broke away in mid-flight.
The number of unruly passengers has also skyrocketed in recent years, reaching a record of nearly 6,000 incidents in 2021, according to FAA figures. These figures fell to around 2,000 incidents in 2022 and 2023.
