A 26-year-old passenger on board an American Airlines jet from Charlotte to Dallas opened a door and slid down an inflatable emergency chute Tuesday as the aircraft waited to taxi to its gate at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
The man, who had not been identified Tuesday night, reportedly ran into the first class section of American Airlines Flight 1343 and opened the exit door, according to an airport advisory. The plane, an MD-80, had just arrived from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport about 1 p.m. and was parked on a ramp when the incident happened.
After opening the door, the man deployed the inflatable slide and slid down to the Aircraft Operations Area, where he was held by American fleet service clerks until airport public safety officers took him into custody.
The incident caused no delays to the airport's other flight operations.
Charlotte historian Pamela Grundy was on the plane, sitting several rows back from the passenger who jumped. The man, she said, was with his mother, who tried to stop him.
“I wasn't really paying attention until there was a scuffle upfront,” Grundy said. “The pilot called for passengers to come and help. Several guys moved to the front, but then someone said, ‘Well, he's jumped out.' You could see him running on the tarmac.”
The plane sat for several minutes while workers closed the door so the plane could continue on to gate A37 at Terminal C. The man's mother returned to her seat and asked a flight attendant to apologize to the other passengers for her son's actions. The attendant did, Grundy said.
“Then the jokes started and they made me sick,” she said. “He's clearly a troubled human being, with people who care about him. Who knows what's going to happen to him.”
By 4:15 p.m., the man had been questioned by FBI agents and taken to a hospital for evaluation, an airport spokesman said. The spokesman didn't know if the man was from Charlotte, or why he jumped from the plane.
“That's what the authorities are trying to determine,” the spokesman said.
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