Yesterday a passenger on United’s flight UA1892 from New Orleans to Houston pulled the emergency exit door over the wing of the Boeing 737 on arrival and jumped out.
She went out onto the plane’s wing — really not meant for walking on — and jumped to the ground.
Apparently the flight’s early arrival meant it didn’t have a gate open.
The woman ran towards the terminal and was apprehended.
Houston Police Department officials said the woman was transported to a neuro-psychiatric center for medical evaluation. Prosecutors decided to not accept charges against the woman or release her identity.
Meanwhile passengers waited while police boarded and searched the plane.
Unlike when a United 737 flight attendant in Houston made their own exit earlier this year, the slide was not deployed.
(HT: @HRLawyerKnox)
Ha – This sounds tempting to do with AA. They never have gates available at LAX or DCA. Maybe UA and also AA will get the message to get their operations together.
I arrived at DCA on Sunday night after traveling 8,500 miles that day and they weren’t ready for us so we didn’t have a gate. I seriously considered the exact same thing, no jury of my peers would ever convict me.
Honestly, I think some civil disobedience might do some good, this has been a HUGE problem lately (no gates), maybe airlines will start actually doing something about it if it starts costing them money and bad PR. The Point Guys tweeted last night that they arrived in Miami and had to wait 90 minutes for a gate, that’s just ridiculous!
For an airline, your time is free. Unless there is a consequence for overscheduling, this is what you can expect.
so, he gets to wait in the pokey instead, not a good plan.
White?
A black or brown would have been shot as a terrorist. Especially in Texas where they are looking for excuses to shoot non whites.
Haven’t we all been tempted to do this same thing. Surprised they didn’t press charges, though.
Is waiting for gates a consequence of airlines padding their schedules so that many flights arrive a lot earlier?
I’ve not felt the urge to go to that extreme, but sure have wanted to scream “GET ME OFF THIS PLANE” in those situations — especially galling after the crew has gone thru their pushy redundant crap telling you to hurry up in prep for landing.
The real shame in that incident is that everyone else then had to sit for an extra hour, while barney fife and deppity dawg did their stupid “look how safe we make you” routines (photo).
Maybe it is just me….but why the cop & the dog? To perhaps sniff out “bombs” or other explosive devices perhaps left by the terrorist who jumped out of the plane and ran away? If they were WORRIED enough about a potential explosion, etc., wouldn’t the prudent thing have been to EVACUATE the entire plane BEFORE walking through with the dog?
I am with Penny…seems odd to me.
On the 14 hours UA direct flights from TLV to SFO there is always at least an hour of waiting in the aircraft after arrival due to the terminal being closed until about an hour after landing. Poor planning maybe, but unavoidable due to departure laws in TLV and length of travel to SFO (late night departure and early arrival). On a recent flight the waiting time to disembark was increased to almost two hours due to gate problems in SFO. Most passengers were desperate to get out at this point and although no one opened an emergency exit, most of us felt that this was plain ridiculous and the excuses we were given for the continued delay were absurd.
Recently it took me less time to fly LEX-ORD than it did to taxi to the gate on landing.
And, yeah, that nonsense with the dog was asinine.