On Monday, April 27 a passenger on Delta Air Lines flight 2879 from Atlanta to Chicago O’Hare did his best Howard Beale impression. Stuck on board the Boeing 737-900 due to thunderstorms and air traffic control congestion, the man was mad as hell and he wasn’t going to take it anymore.
- The plane was scheduled to depart Atlanta at 5:24 p.m. and arrive at 6:35 p.m.
- The FAA had issued a ground stop for flights headed to O’Hare due to storms. That lasted until around 7:15 p.m.
- The aircraft didn’t leave the gate until 7:38 p.m.
- A ground delay program continued through 3:00 a.m. due to air traffic congestion that backed up because of the ground stop. So passengers sat on the aircraft.
One man got aggressive. He demanded to be taken back to the gate. He threatened that if they didn’t let him off, he’d take matters into his own hands. He yelled, threatened to open the aircraft door, threw bags – and eventually did manage to turn the handle but not enough for the emergency slide to deploy.
How long has it been delayed already? Three, four hours, and now you’re talking another… Get me to the gate. I want off. Or I’ll take myself off. Okay? Here you go.
He declares, “You know who matters? Me!”
Watch this guy open the airplane door on the tarmac after a 3-to-4-hour delay because he wanted to go back to the gate.
I’ve been stuck in those long delays too and it’s frustrating as hell, but this just makes the plane even later for everyone else. Hope it was worth getting… pic.twitter.com/F2b120LCcb
— Kim "Katie" USA (@KimKatieUSA) April 29, 2026
The pilot returned to the gate, where police took the man into custody. The flight eventually did make it to Chicago – without him. Their gate departure happened at 12:27 a.m. on Tuesday, arriving at their gate at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday. The flight was delayed a total of 8 hours 25 minutes… much longer than it would have been because of this man’s antics.
If the slide had been deployed, the cost and disruption would have been much worse. The slide inspection and repacking alone can run in the five figures. It takes the aircraft out of service.
It doesn’t appear that the actual tarmac delay exceeded the regulatory maximum three hours without passengers having an opportunity to deplane. (Food and water are required no later than two hours after the start of a tarmac delay, unless unsafe to offer it.)
Once a passenger starts threatening in this manner or creating a major distraction, the cockpit remains closed. The event could be a lone tantrum, but crews are trained to think of it as a possible distraction, coordinated interference, and a cockpit breach attempt. The captain’s PA response “we are going to go back to the gate” – and addressing the passenger via an announcement and not to coming into the cabin – was the correct one.
In response to the captain returning to the gate, the passenger shouts “good idea!” I bet he changed his opinion once they got there.
Guy is an idiot. Hope he does get charged & fined. Hopefully Delta pursues this matter and at very least, bans him.
“not enough for the emergency slide to deploy” …umm, so either he didn’t actually open it at all, or it wasn’t ‘armed’?
There need to be legal or regulatory limits requiring a return to gate/deplaning after several hours sitting on the tarmac or just locked on the plane at the gate.
@Thing 1 — Umm… DOT already as ‘Tarmac Delay Rules’ in the US, including ‘return to the gate’ for Domestic (3 hours), International (4 hours). After 2 hours, airlines are supposed to provide food, water, restrooms, and medical, if needed. All unless valid safety, security, ATC allows them to exceed. Airlines that violate can be fined tens of tens of thousands of dollars per passenger.
Now, I wish we’d expand upon these baseline rules to include compensation to passengers for excessive delays under the airlines control, like they already do in EU/UK/Canada. Delayed 3-4 hours because of a maintenance or staffing issue? Yeah, that’ll be $250-700, please.
@Thing 1: Totally agree.
737-9, so they likely boarded 45-50 minutes before the original 5:24 departure (so roughly 4:35 pm), sat at the gate until 7:38, when they pushed back (a hair over 3 hours), then this all happened at 7:54 pm (per the video). Gotta wonder what happened in those extra 15 minutes? Did the pilot say “yeah, we pushed but now there’s going to be another 3 hour delay while we wait our turn?” That recently happened to me coming out of ORD, and they would even let anyone go to the bathroom because they were taxiing. No food or water for over three hours.
So does the 3 hour rule start ticking from when they boarded (it should IMHO) or when the plane pushes back, or from the original time of departure?
In this case, even after this delay, they pushed back at 12:27 am (EST) and didn’t land in ORD until 3 am (CST)(which is 4 am EST), and therefore took 3.5 hrs. Since the actual in air time is 1.5 hrs-ish, they must have pushed back and then sat on the tarmac for another two hours.