Airplane Passenger Opens Emergency Exit, Jumps Off Wing and Hides from Cops

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You would think that once the pandemic ended and the mask mandate was dropped, unruly passenger numbers would rapidly decline. Instead, it’s been the opposite. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of unruly passenger incidents rose by 37% in 2022. “Latest figures show that there was one unruly incident reported for every 568 flights in 2022, up from one per 835 flights in 2021. The most common categorizations of incidents in 2022 were non-compliance, verbal abuse and intoxication.” RELATED: 12 Things in Travel You Need to Know Today

No one should be surprised that alcohol plays a huge role. Just a few days ago, it was reported that an intoxicated British Airways passenger stabbed a seatmate on a flight from London to St. Lucia. Here’s that story.

Four months ago, A 21-year-old Indian passenger urinated on his seatmate mid-flight on an American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi. According to the news, “he urinated on a US citizen on March 4 while he was drunk.” Here’s the full story.

There are countless examples of unruly behavior on planes and in airports. Today’s report that a man in Minnesota was caught jumping from a plane and running onto the tarmac is just the latest. According to Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, “A Sun Country Airlines passenger wanted for violating a restraining order and drug charges attempted to evade police by opening the emergency exit and running onto the tarmac Sunday night at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.”

Turns out, the police were waiting for the 44-year-old man at the gate when his flight (346) from Orlando landed at 11:15pm. The article goes on to say: “But the man opened the emergency exit door over the wing, jumped to the airfield and ran.” He was caught 30 minutes later, hiding inside an airline food service truck.

You’ve really got to be desperate to open up the emergency door and try and flee while the cops are waiting at the gate. I mean, where are you going to run? Tarmacs are so long and wide and there are cameras everywhere.

It reminds me of the Asiana Airlines passenger who opened the plane door on descent into Daegu, South Korea in late May. Nine passengers were hospitalized and caused trauma for so many.

When is the madness going to stop? I don’t think anytime soon but some experts think airlines should introduce a dress code in the hopes that it will decrease the number of unruly passengers. Do you think that will make any difference?

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